Columbus Blue Jackets (25-15-3 53pts) v. Washington Capitals (27-12-4 58pts)
Game Recap:
Looking for a good start to the game, the Columbus Blue Jackets would strike one minute into the game when Markus Nutivaara would do a break out pass to a streaking Cam Atkinson who would score his 25th of the season, then 52 seconds later Jonas Siegenthaler would get called for interference to give the Blue Jackets and early powerplay, but the Washington Capitals would kill the penalty. The rest of the first period would feature a lot of back and forth between the two teams, but then the Capitals would draw a penalty against David Savard for their first powerplay of the game. However the Capitals would not be able to capitalize on the Alex Ovechkin-less powerplay to end the period.
For the majority of the first half of the second period it would be the Blue Jackets holding possession of the period, but it would be Atkinson taking a penalty when he high sticked Braden Holtby to give the Capitals the powerplay. As a result of the high stick though, Holtby would have to leave the game and Pheonix Copley would enter the game. Then while on the powerplay, Ovechkin was trying to get back onsides but would be called for interference which was a very questionable call by the officials. The rest of the period would be filled with a lot of back and forth with the Capitals taking over and forcing the play in the last 3 to 5 minutes of the period.
After a long period with a lot of back and forth between both the Capitals and Blue Jackets, it would be the Capitals pulling Copley for the extra attacker and have it pay dividends as Evgeny Kuznetsov would score on a beautiful one timer to tie this game at one. Then in overtime it would be an ill advised penalty by Nicklas Backstrom that would lead to a Columbus powerplay that would see Artemi Panarin net his second straight overtime winner to give the Blue Jackets the 2-1 win.
Lineups:
Columbus Blue Jackets:
Artemi Panarin — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Cam Atkinson
Nick Foligno — Boone Jenner — Josh Anderson
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Alexander Wennberg — Anthony Duclair
Kevin Stenlund — Lukas Sedlak — Riley Nash
Zach Werenski — Seth Jones
Dean Kukan — Markus Nutivaara
Scott Harrington — David Savard
Joonas Korpisalo
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Gabriel Carlsson
Injured: Ryan Murray (illness), Brandon Dubinsky (hamstring), Markus Hannikainen (elbow)
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Brett Connolly — Lars Eller — Travis Boyd
Chandler Stephenson — Nic Dowd — Devante Smith-Pelly
Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny — John Carlson
Brooks Orpik — Jonas Siegenthaler
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Andre Burakovsky, Madison Bowey, Dmitrij Jaskin
Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)
First Period:
Blue Jackets Goal – 1:00 – Cam Atkinson (25) from Markus Nutivaara (10) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (23)
Capitals Penalty – 1:52 – Jonas Siegenthaler 2 minutes for Interference
Blue Jackets Penalty – 18:06 – David Savard 2 minutes for Interference
End of 1st – CLB – 1 WAS – 0
Shots 07 11
Faceoffs 12 14
Hits 03 09
PP 0/1 0/1
Second Period:
Blue Jackets Penalty – 8:43 – Cam Atkinson 2 minutes for High Sticking
Capitals Goalie Change – Pheonix Copley enters the game for Braden Holtby
Capitals Penalty – 9:46 – Alex Ovechkin 2 minutes for Interference
End of 2nd – CLB – 1 WAS – 0
Shots 13 20
Faceoffs 24 21
Hits 08 12
PP 0/2 0/2
Third Period:
Capitals Goal – 18:54 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (8) from John Carlson (36) and Alex Ovechkin (18)
End of 3rd – CLB – 1 WAS – 1
Shots 21 32
Faceoffs 34 37
Hits 16 18
PP 0/2 0/2
OT:
Capitals Penalty – 3:18 – Nicklas Backstrom 2 minutes for Slashing
Blue Jackets PPG – 3:30 – Artemi Panarin (16) from Seth Jones (20)
End of OT – CLB – 2 WAS – 1
Shots 22 33
Faceoffs 36 40
Hits 16 20
PP 0/3 0/2
Next Up:
Washington (27-12-5 59pts) v. St. Louis (18-20-4 40pts)
Columbus (26-15-3 55pts) v. NY Rangers (18-19-7 43pts)