The Columbus Blue Jackets faced their latest do or die situation on Saturday afternoon against the Washington Capitals. They started early and on-time. They never looked back.
Jet Greaves made 22 saves to record his first NHL shutout. Adam Fantilli’s two goals helped pace the offense in a 7-0 blowout win over the Washington Capitals.
The story of this game was the Blue Jackets taking care of business. They now await the result of the Montreal Canadiens game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
Game Recap
The Blue Jackets wasted no time getting on the board. Zach Werenski made it 1-0 just one minute into the game. He took a feed from Sean Monahan and beat Hunter Shepard. His 21st goal of the season set a new franchise record for goals in a season by a defenseman.
The Capitals were without some regulars. Alex Ovechkin didn’t play but is expected to play Sunday when the same two teams meet at Capital One Arena. Jakob Chychrun didn’t play again. The Blue Jackets took full advantage of the Capitals resting guys knowing their spot in the playoffs was secured.
Kent Johnson extended the lead to 2-0 on a filthy goal. He got the puck at the blue line, dangled around a defender and then beat Shepard.
The temperature of the game spiked when Fantilli made it 3-0 at the end of the first. He laid a clean hit on Ryan Leonard and then scored at the other end on the resulting rush. Tom Wilson was highly displeased and mouthed off to the officials. He got 12 minutes in the box for his efforts. Fantilli said postgame the hit was clean but was expecting to have to answer later in the game.
The Blue Jackets opened the second with three goals in the span of 3:13 to extend to a 6-0 lead. Fantilli scored his second of the game. Sean Monahan added his 19th of the season for 5-0. Then Cole Sillinger scored his 10th of the season. Then things got very physical from there while Greaves shut the door.
Leonard and Sean Kuraly got into a fight with each player getting seven minutes. Less than two minutes later, Rasmus Sandin fought James van Riemsdyk. They got seven minutes a piece also.
Then in the third, a slew of misconducts were handed out. Trevor van Riemsdyk and Pierre-Luc Dubois got 10 each along with Dmitri Voronkov. Well, at least Voronkov didn’t think so.
On the resulting Blue Jackets’ power play, Voronkov came off the bench and played for 32 seconds before officials realized he was an illegal player. That’s a bench minor for an ineligible player. Fantilli said postgame he couldn’t stop laughing at what happened. Evason ultimately said that falls on him and that there will be a coach’s accountability meeting before Sunday’s game.
It appeared Voronkov didn’t understand he was given a penalty due to not being able to fully understand English. Kuraly said he’d never seen anything like it before. “I think he thought they said number 10, not 10 minutes. I don’t know. We’ll give him some slack for that one.”
James van Riemsdyk scored with 2:19 left in the game to complete his Gordie Howe hat trick to make it 7-0. Shepard made 19 saves on the 26 shots he faced.
The Blue Jackets expect some carryover for the rematch on Sunday in Washington. If it’s anything like it was Saturday, it could make for some bigtime fireworks.