*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and two assists, Alex Nylander had two goals and an assist, and the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the San Jose Sharks with a 4-2 victory on Saturday in Columbus.
The Blue Jackets had lost 4 of their last 5 entering the game and took down the Sharks at home to snap that spiral. Nylander made headlines for the Blue Jackets as he scored twice, giving him 8 goals in 11 games since they acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline.
Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent said of Nylander that "The first time he got here my message to him was, ‘I want to see you compete, I want to see you skate, and when you have a chance, shoot the puck.' What I didn't know was his brain. He has a good brain. He can read the game offensively and defensively. I rely quite a bit on him defensively as well. So, we wanted to give him a chance, and he's taken advantage of it."
Boone Jenner started the scoring in this one, scoring the only goal of the first period to put the Blue Jackets ahead 1-0. Just 49 seconds into the second period, Nylander scored his 7th goal of the season to make it 2-0. Fabian Zetterlund got the Sharks on the board at the 11:48 mark of the period to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Gaudreau scored 15:03 into the second period, giving the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead with Nylander and Jenner picking up assists. Henry Thrun scored the first goal of the 3rd period, cutting the Sharks deficit to 3-2 on his second goal of the season. With 1:05 left in the game, Nylander scored on an empty net to make it a 4-2 final.
Nylander said of his success in Columbus that "I've been working for this the past two years. I just stick to my plan. I know that if I get a chance, I’ve just got to take it. I know I could play in this league. It's been a really big opportunity and I'm really happy that they took a chance on me, and it's been going great, so we’ve just got to keep it going."
Starting in net for the Blue Jackets was Daniil Tarasov, who put together a good game to improve his record to 7-9-2. Tarasov stopped 39 of the 41 shots he was tested with by the Sharks attack, giving him a sparkling .951 save percentage.
Getting the start between the pipes for the Sharks was rookie Magnus Chrona, who got handed the loss to drop to 1-5-1 in 7 starts. Chrona turned aside 16 out of the 19 shots on goal the Blue Jackets had, good for a .842 save percentage.
Sharks head coach David Quinn said after the game that "We had plenty of chances, especially in the third, hit a few posts. Tarasov made some good saves. We dug ourselves a bit of a hole in the first. Our start certainly wasn’t what we wanted it to be. I thought we gradually got better as the game went on and made a great push in the third period."
Both teams play on Sunday as they wrap up back to back games. Elvis Merzlikins starts for the Blue Jackets as they host the Winnipeg Jets while Devin Cooley is set to start for the Sharks as they take on the Chicago Blackhawks.
Comments
Post a Comment