It started bad, got worse, a little better, then worse again.
On a night where the Columbus Blue Jackets could've gotten closer to clinching a playoff spot and while riding a five-game winning streak, the club was dismantled by the Boston Bruins by a score of 6-2.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruins | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Blue Jackets | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Just 1:58 into the game, the Bruins had one of the more lucky, unusual, really any-adjective-you-want-to-use kind of goals you'll ever see. A shot deflected off David Savard's stick, flew fifteen-plus feet in the air, landed on top of the net, hit off Sergei Bobrovsky's back, in landed gently inside the goal.
Totally normal and not fluky goal!#CBJ pic.twitter.com/bMw6Jars2S
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) April 2, 2019
This luck gave birth to near dominance, as the the Bruins used the fluky momentum to carry their way through the rest of the first period. Columbus showed flashes of keeping up with the game, but another goal for the away club with less then three minutes to go in the first started to let the air out of the building, which was a rebound slammed home by Marcus Johansson.
Even when the Blue Jackets seemed to get some sort of a chance, it was squandered almost immediately. 9:59 into the second period, Columbus drew a penalty and headed to the power play, which was quickly negated by a Alexander Wennberg tripping call just 13 seconds into the man-advantage.
Once both penalties were killed off, the Bruins started to get merciless. After a couple of breakaway saves and odd-man-rush denials by Bobrovsky, the Bruins finally broke through again, twice in a matter of 46 seconds, to seemingly put the game away for good.
Bobrovsky was relieved from his duties after the fourth goal by Joonas Korpisalo, though his efforts were certainly not the ones to blame tonight. The Blue Jackets then headed to intermission (only) trailing in shots by 24-17.
The final period was much of the same; David Pastrnak pushed the Bruins lead to 5-0, and the exit signs got a little brighter for fans.
The Blue Jackets showed glimpses of a comeback, scoring two goals within four minutes on back-to-back power plays, which was then immediately followed up by another Boston goal to seal the game at 6-2.
Thank you for the silver lining, Oliver.
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) April 3, 2019
Six games in a row for him with a goal.#CBJ pic.twitter.com/sZVjmm0v1Q
Thankfully, the Blue Jackets stay in a playoff spot, with two games remaining in the regular season, but have now dropped to the final wild card position.
INJURY UPDATE
Ryan Murray remains out of the lineup with an upper body injury.
NEXT UP
The Blue Jackets travel to New York to face the Rangers on Friday night at 7 p.m.
