The Columbus Blue Jacket saw Sunday night in Anaheim as a big game. If they won, they’d pull back to hockey .500 on the season. However, the Ducks had other ideas.
John Gibson made his season debut and made 39 saves to backstop the Ducks to a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets. 12 different players hit the scoresheet for the Ducks in a balanced attack. For the Blue Jackets, their offensive struggles continued despite controlling the game for long stretches.
Game Recap
The Ducks got off to a quick start. Just over three minutes into the game, Cutter Gauthier was able to find Brett Leason in front. He converted an easy tap in to make it 1-0.
To the Blue Jackets’ credit, they got stronger as the first period went on. They were finally able to solve Gibson on the power play late in the period. Yegor Chinakhov scored his fourth of the season on a setup by Zach Werenski. Werenski played in his 500th NHL game Sunday.
Despite the Blue Jackets carrying momentum into the second period, it was the Ducks who took the 2-1 lead thanks to Jackson LaCombe. Ivan Provorov turned the puck over in the defensive zone which led to LaCombe eventually converting on a rebound.
The Blue Jackets outshot the Ducks in all three periods firing a total of 41 shots on Gibson. It was 11-7 in the second and then 17-13 in the third. Again it was the Ducks who scored first in the third.
Leo Carlsson was able to find a puck in a maze of bodies and beat goalie Daniil Tarasov from the slot to make it 3-1. Kirill Marchenko scored his sixth of the season with the Blue Jackets pushing late to cut it to 3-2. For Marchenko, that marked a multi-point game and 15 points in his first 14 games of this season.
That was as close as the Blue Jackets could get. Isac Lundestrom was able to hit the empty net to get to the final score of 4-2. Three games in California saw the Blue Jackets fire 117 shots on goalies only to score five. That’s a .957 save percentage. Tarasov stopped 26 of 29 on Sunday night. With the loss, the Blue Jackets have lost five in a row going 0-4-1 in that stretch.
The Blue Jackets now have Monday off before finishing the road trip in Seattle. Meanwhile the Ducks get a couple days off at home before hosting the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.