The Columbus Blue Jackets entered the third period of Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning facing a familiar situation. They were trailing and looking for a spark.
Head coach Pascal Vincent saw an opportunity to give his team a spark in-between periods. As it turned out, it was just the motivation the Blue Jackets needed to turn defeat into a huge win.
Captain Boone Jenner scored the game-tying goal in the third period and added an assist. Erik Gudbranson converted on the game-winning goal to help pace the Blue Jackets to a three-goal third period and a 4-2 win over the Lightning. Johnny Gaudreau capped the third period with his first goal of the season into an empty net.
Gudbranson admitted postgame that the potential turning point in the game may have been what Vincent said to the team between the second and third period.
Game Recap
The Blue Jackets held a 1-0 lead after the first period thanks to Kirill Marchenko’s first goal of the season. He got a feed from fellow countryman Dmitri Voronkov and beat Matt Tomkins to open the scoring. Marchenko seemed to respond well to being healthy scratched for two straight games.
Marchenko paced the Blue Jackets with six shots on goal. The main message from Vincent was to go back and do what he does best. That’s shoot the puck.
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Marchenko looked for his shot all night. His line with Voronkov and Cole Sillinger was the most dangerous line on the ice the whole night in terms of impact.
However the momentum gained in the first period was wiped out by the Lightning in the second. They held the Blue Jackets to 0.06 expected goals for according to Nat Stat Trick in the middle frame.
The Blue Jackets took three penalties in the second period which helped stop any momentum they had. The Lightning held the puck most of the period. It was two unfortunate bounces that ultimately beat Merzlikins.
First it was Steven Stamkos who scored off a centering pass that hit the skate of Jake Bean and went in. Then it was Conor Sheary who took advantage of a puck that hit Bemstrom and went right to him. Outside of that, Merzlikins was the star of the night.
Merzlikins’ 10 saves in the second kept the score 2-1 when in year’s past the Blue Jackets would be down 4-1 or 5-1. This allowed the team to gather themselves and dominate the third period. He was the game’s first star stopping 27/29 shots.
A Well-Timed Speech?
What did coach Vincent say to his team during the second intermission? Was he willing to share what was said? “Absolutely not,” quipped Vincent while smiling.
But then Vincent got to the heart of the matter when describing how his team played in the third period.
“Like every game, we make the adjustments that we want to make and just talked about believing in ourselves,” Vincent said. “But that speech had nothing to do (with the outcome.) It’s all the players. They came back in the third and they did job. It’s all on them.”
“I thought we created our chances in the third. We were skating. We were defending, winning one-on-one battles. I saw the intensity that I like that we can see moving forward.”
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Gudbranson praised his coach for not just the speech but the purpose behind the speech. It was honesty the team needed to hear at the time.
“Pazzy came in and what he said hit the nail on the head,” Gudbranson said. “(He) called it as he saw it. We did a really good job coming out and believing in our ability to come win the game. That’s a tough team to take wins from. We did a lot of good things. From last year to this year that’s a significant difference how we handled that deficit going into the third.”
“(What Vincent said) was shrewd. It was honest. It was helpful also. There was guidance along with that too. He’s doing a lot of the good things and getting us in the right direction. We’re very fortunate to have him.”
With the win, the Blue Jackets improved to 4-4-2 in their first 10 games. Their busy month of November continues Saturday night in Washington against the Capitals.
Side Dishes
- The Blue Jackets had 11 different players record a point in the game.
- The penalty kill successfully killed all three Lightning power plays. Their 85.3% success rate on the kill is ranked 9th in the NHL. That rate is 87% on home ice which is 7th.
- Jenner now stands alone in third place on the Blue Jackets’ all-time scoring list with 336. He has only Cam Atkinson and Rick Nash ahead of him.
- Kent Johnson was benched in the third period after a turnover in front of his own net on the power play. He hasn’t played anywhere near his best. But if there’s anyone who will find his way eventually, it’s Johnson. We’ll see how this plays out in the near term.
