RESULT: Columbus 7, Pittsburgh 1
DATE: Dec. 22, 2016
LOCATION: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
WHAT HAPPENED: Nationwide Arena always has a bit of a different feel when the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town.
It's a big-game, rivalry atmosphere. It's not hard to find gold and black, either from locals whose rooting interests never changed or visitors heading across the state line. Columbus fans also come out in droves, determined not to let Pens fans to take over.
Even by that scale, what happened three days before Christmas was up a level. Columbus entered the game having won 10 games in a row, but some around the National Hockey League scoffed. Sure, the upstart Blue Jackets could beat Colorado, Arizona and Vancouver. What about the defending Stanley Cup champions?
Sixty minutes of hockey later, the hockey world had its answer, and it was an emphatic one with the home team delighting the crowd and the visitors growing sick of the cannon blasts thanks to a 7-1 Blue Jackets victory.
Scott Hartnell had a hat trick, while Cam Atkinson, William Karlsson, Brandon Saad and Boone Jenner also scored as Columbus took over first place in the Metropolitan Division. David Savard added a plus-4 rating and Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 25 pucks.
"Goals have been few and far between for myself for the last 15 or 20 games, so it's nice to contribute," Hartnell told reporters after the game. "Everyone had smiles on their faces tonight, everyone is contributing, and when you beat the Pens your smile is extra big."
It didn't look early like Columbus would dominate. In fact, head coach John Tortorella said the team was "wetting our pants" in the early going. That resulted in a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead just 2:39 into the game as Sidney Crosby batted in a rebound to score his NHL-best 23rd goal of the season.
The game in some ways changed midway through the first when Ian Cole took a double minor for high sticking. On the ensuing power play, Cam Atkinson scored on a cross-crease feed from Nick Foligno to make it 1-1, and the score would hold going into the second.
Boone Jenner and Steve Oleksy dropped the gloves 5:45 into that period before Columbus started its takeover. At 10:15, William Karlsson put the Jackets ahead for good on a weird goal as he backhanded Sam Gagner's pass into the net, but it went in and out of the cage so quickly that no one knew for sure it was a goal until the horn stopped play seconds later. Then, Hartnell got his first goal of the game just 2:05 later when he outraced the defense to a puck, cut across the front of the cage and scored on Matt Murray.
Things really got out of hand in the third. Hartnell scored from between the circles just 2:44 into the period, setting up a three-goal explosion in just 51 seconds. Brandon Saad tallied on the rush to make it 5-1 at 3:01, and Jenner tallied 34 seconds after that. Finally, Hartnell completed the scoring and his personal hat trick – or was it 'Hart trick'? – at 6:24.
Columbus would go on to win five more in a row after that, finally reaching 16 once the year flipped over to 2017 to complete the second-longest winning streak in NHL history (one short of the Penguins, of course).
But of all the wins in the run, few will stand out or be as satisfying to the Blue Jackets and their fans as when the touchdown and extra point went on the board against the Pens.
