Columbus Blue Jackets pull off stunning comeback in OT over Washington Capitals
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The Blue Jackets’ five-game road trip is finally over.
It was long, painful in the middle and thanks to impressive resilience Tuesday in Washington, including Johnny Gaudreau’s lung-burning 2:43 shift in overtime, it ended the same way it began last week in San Jose.
Despite trailing most of the game, the Blue Jackets pulled out a 7-6 overtime win over the Washington Capitals on Jack Roslovic’s second goal of the game — which capped a 2-on-1 in with Gaudreau in OT to let his teammate’s burning lungs recover.
“I was super proud of the guys in our locker room, the way we stuck with it,” Gaudreau said. “We just fought back throughout the night and ended up winning in overtime. I was happy for our team and happy for (associate coach Pascal Vincent). It’s great for him to get his first win in the NHL as a head coach too.”
Vincent ran the Blue Jackets’ bench for the second straight game while head coach Brad Larsen was away for a death in his family. Vincent also ran the bench when Larsen missed four games with a COVID-19 infection last season.
"The guys kept fighting and fighting," Vincent said. "It was an interesting game. It was a fun game to coach. It was a fun game to be part of. It was a good hockey game.”
It was a little nutty, too, as thirteen combined goals created a scoresheet filled with goals, assists and points.
Roslovic and Adam Boqvist scored two goals each and 12 Blue Jackets finished with at least a point, including seven with two each. Defenseman Nick Jensen scored two goals for the Capitals, who had 13 players record points and four with two each.
Gaudreau, Patrik Laine and rookie Kent Johnson had two assists, forwards Eric Robinson and Emil Bemstrom had a goal and assist each, and Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner tied it 6-6 with 46.9 seconds left in the third and the Columbus net empty.
Rookie Daniil Tarasov allowed six goals on 37 shots and started for the fourth time in the past five games for the Blue Jackets (22-41-7). Charlie Lindgren allowed seven goals on 39 shots for the Capitals (33-31-8).
Alex Ovechkin was honored before the game for passing Gordie Howe on the NHL’s all-time goals list Dec. 23 against the Winnipeg Jets. He then made history again with the game’s opening goal in the first period — which was credited to him after initially going to Ryan Strome.
It was the Washington captain’s 40th goal and the 13th time he’s scored that many in his career — one more than all-time NHL goal-scoring leader Wayne Gretzky. It was Ovechkin’s 820th career goal, moving him 75 away from passing Gretzky for the top spot in all-time goals.
That felt less significant by the time Jenner scored the Blue Jackets’ third goal in the third, evening the game in the last regulation minute after Jensen put the Capitals up 6-5 with 4:36 to play.
Columbus began the third down 5-3 and tied it in the first 8:35 on goals by Boqvist and Bemstrom, who assisted on Boqvist’s goal in the second. After a sluggish first, the Blue Jackets forced OT with three goals in each of the second and third periods to overcome Capitals leads of 3-0 and 3-1 in the first, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3 and 5-3 in the second, and 5-4 and 6-5 in the third.
“We know we have a good room,” Vincent said. “We know we have good people. We know they want to compete, regardless of the standings right now. Those guys are proud in the dressing room, and they want to show up and they want to create something for the future. So, I’m proud of them.”
After finishing the trip 2-3-0, the Blue Jackets get a day off Wednesday before practicing Thursday for back-to-back games Friday against the New York Islanders and Saturday in Montreal.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets stun Washington Capitals in overtime
