Third Star: Trevor Daley
The game was in Dallas, Daley was very, very good tonight, he scored Dallas’ goal. Plus, he blocked a shot with his face, got stitched up immediately, and came back into the game. Nails.
Second Star: Artem Anisimov
Beauty first goal, money on the PK (over 3 minutes total), helped hold the Stars big guns off the board for most of the game, although he had a rough night in the faceoff circles (33%). But really the props goes out to all of the guys who played key roles over those final excruciating minutes. Dubinsky, DMac, Arty, Tyutin, Johnson, Murray, Letestu, Comeau, Joey, and everyone else.
First Star: Sergei Bobrovsky
Bob is the man. 33 saves tonight, and it took six Dallas skaters to get a puck past him. He was fine over the first two periods, but the Jackets controlled those two bad boys. The third period though? That was a masterpiece. Seventeen saves in a period. Locked down the playoffs. Two games in two days, two wins over players battling for their seasons, and most importantly 58 saves.
Stud: Lindy Ruff’s Aggressiveness
I’m sure this is not what you were expecting here, but holy crap was that third period exciting. Yes, the Stars dominated in puck possession and shots, but remember score effects. I’ve talked in the past about how I love aggressiveness with pulling the goalie, but man Stars coach Lindy Ruff took it to a whole new level. The goalie pull with thirteen minutes left and a powerplay took stones and paid dividends. But it makes sense. If the Jackets kill that penalty off, the game is pretty much over, the Stars are deflated, the Jackets are pumped, and that’s the game. Well, if that is the game, then why not go for broke? Man oh man did that make for some fantastic hockey. That was probably my favorite stretch of hockey to watch this entire season. Then Ruff follows it up by pulling the goalie again with over three minutes left. Same principle applies as earlier: you need multiple goals, and if you don’t get one quick, you’re probably not getting two. Again, this stretch was some more fantastic, nail-biting hockey, but Bob, Dubi, DMac and the rest took care of business.
Dud: Nope
No duds tonight. The team came out flying, dominating in shots and possession the first two periods. Go look at the stats for this game over at Extra Skater. Yes, the Stars dominated the stats in general (again, score effects). But click the “Tied” stat. Then click the “Close” stat. You’ll see a big fat 0 for the tied, and 1.5 for the close. The end of the game seemed closer than it was. This team came out the last few games and took care of business.
So there it is. A playoff spot clinched. Not only that, but the Jackets pulled ahead of the Red Wings for the top wild card spot. They pulled even with the Flyers in points for the third spot in the Metro, although Philly has a game in hand and the ROW tiebreaker. BUT the Jackets have the season series on Philly. A 2-0 finish from Columbus (both ROW’s) and a 1-0-2 finish (or worse) by the Flyers and the Jackets get the Rangers in the first round. That would be amazing. As it stands right now, they are slated to play Pittsburgh. Considering the health problems of that squad and Marc-Andre Fleury’s playoff butter-fingers, they are a much tastier match-up (on the ice at least) than the Bruins. But that can all wait for another day. The playoffs are here. We are talking about them. We can now all say it out loud. No more worries about jinxing it. No more worries about tiebreakers, or scoreboard watching, or sweating out the last game of the season. The playoffs are coming back to Nationwide.
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