COLUMBUS — The Columbus Blue Jackets wanted their last home game in a month to be memorable.
Linemates Ryan Johansen and Boone Jenner each had a goal and an assist in the first period, and Sergei
Bobrovsky made 36 saves to lead the Blue Jackets past the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night.
It was Columbus’ final home game until March 1, due to four road games and the NHL Olympic hiatus.
“We definitely wanted to leave Columbus on a good note,” Johansen said of the impending West Coast road
trip that will lead into the break. “Now we’re heading out with three really tough games. We wanted to
finish this off well, and obviously we did.”
After Brad Boyes cut Florida’s deficit to 2-1 early in the second period, Nick Foligno and Mark Letestu
scored for the Blue Jackets. Nathan Horton had two assists in the opening 20 minutes.
In their last 13 games, the Blue Jackets won eight in a row, lost three straight and now have won the
past two.
Down 3-1 going into the third, the Panthers dominated the pace but Bobrovsky made several big stops to
maintain the two-goal lead. He improved to 11-2 in his last 13 starts.
“Our goalie was very good,” coach Todd Richards said. “We were a very opportunistic group.”
The Blue Jackets considered it a must-win game, because they started the day in fourth place in the
Metropolitan Division, one point out of third place and one point out of a wild-card spot.
In a crisp first period, the Blue Jackets’ line of Johansen, Jenner and Horton — ages 21, 20 and 28,
respectively — played particularly well.
After getting a pass from Horton, Johansen carried the puck from the right wing and waited patiently for
an opening with Jenner on his wing. As Johansen ran out of room, he wristed a shot that goalie Tim
Thomas stopped. But as Thomas, lying on his stomach, tried to gather the puck, he flicked it with his
stick under his glove.
Jenner crashed the net and jammed the puck into an empty net at 15:33 for his ninth goal.
“I blocked it, and then I went to pull it back with my stick, and my glove was caught on the lip of the
net,” said Thomas, who had 26 saves as the Panthers lost their third in a row. “That’s bad luck. We
can’t afford that. The team needs me to keep us as close as possible. We’re a little bit of a fragile
team right now. That was terrible.”
Just 2 1/2 minutes later, Jenner ended up with the puck off a pass from Horton and skated parallel to the
goal line to the left wing. Jenner threw a blind, behind-the-back pass to the crease where Johansen was
alone for his 22nd.
“Boone works so hard and creates so many turnovers,” said Horton, a big offseason free-agent signing from
Boston who played six years for the Panthers. “And Joey (Johansen), when he has the puck, good things
happen.”
Florida dominated the opening minutes of the second, outshooting the Blue Jackets 8-1.
That pressure paid off when Boyes scored his 15th goal. The puck went in off the stick of Columbus
defenseman David Savard.
After Florida’s Nick Bjugstad struck a post with a wrist shot that would have tied the game, the Blue
Jackets pulled away.
Foligno skated with the puck through the neutral zone, and from near the top of the right circle unloaded
a snap shot that appeared to handcuff Thomas and trickled through his pads. He dived with his stick to
try to prevent it from going over the line, but was too late.
“They got a missed puck that bobbled through,” Florida coach Peter Horachek said. “Then they had two that
were blindly kind of thrown behind themselves that went to people. Our chances were point blank but we
didn’t capitalize.”
NOTES: Columbus LW Blake Comeau, still hurting from a sprained ligament in his left knee, was scratched
for the second straight game. … It was the first meeting between the teams in almost two years.
Columbus had won the last five matchups. … Florida will play two of its final three games at home
before the Olympic break. … Savard returned after missing four games with an illness. … Columbus has
won the last six meetings with the Panthers, dating to 2007, and is 9-4 in the series.