Labatt Blue What We Learned: CBJ 4, BOS 3

"I lit a match to the tape already."
Those were the words of Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who was none too pleased with how his team played tonight. He has a point, too; they were guilty of some turnovers in high-danger areas, their play dragged after taking an early 3-0 lead and they weren't particularly sharp overall.
And the best part? They won.

Yes, they won. The Blue Jackets finally got one on the Boston Bruins, a team responsible for two of their five regulation losses, by a 4-3 final in front of a thunderous gathering of 19,005 at Nationwide Arena. The third consecutive sold-out crowd in the home barn witnessed a dramatic finish, one catalyzed by captain Nick Foligno's go-ahead power play goal with 10:46 gone by in the third period.
Columbus was out-shot nearly 2:1 in the game and, after its three-goal outburst in the first period, spent most of its time defending. But once again, there was Sergei Bobrovsky to help out when needed most; he made 37 saves to pick up his league-leading 22nd win of the season and was spectacular, especially in the first period.
It's the 13th straight win for the Blue Jackets, and that's significant. But there's also an encouraging trend developing as they know their level in this game wasn't where it needed to be.
"I don't think either team was really that great," Tortorella said. "We'll put (the points) in the bank."

Here's what we learned:
POWER PLAY DELIVERS: The Bruins did well to kill off the first two Blue Jackets power plays in the game. They frustrated Columbus with active sticks and by denying the interior of the ice, but in the third period, the approach shifted. The Blue Jackets attacked the Boston net from below the goal line, and some of that earlier frustration came out in Foligno's stuff attempt from the side of the net. He said he decided to curl out from behind the net and try a jam play after the Blue Jackets' puck movement wasn't crisp on the first two tries. It turned out to be the right decision.
"Special teams wins the game for us," said Tortorella. "We did squat 5-on-5."

TWO BIG KILLS: After leading 3-0 and then watching that lead evaporate, the Blue Jackets needed to stop the bleeding but were tested twice in the third period. Cam Atkinson tripped up David Krejci at 6:25 of the third, sending the Bruins to the power play in a 3-3 game. The Blue Jackets passed that test, keeping most of the shots on the perimeter and disrupting the quick plays Boston tried to create inside the face-off dots. The second clutch penalty kill came after Foligno's go-ahead goal, when Seth Jones was whistled for cross-checking with 4:01 left in regulation. The Blue Jackets buckled down, did the job and emerged with two more points.
"You've got to find momentum in different parts of the game," Foligno said. "We found it through our defensive play, and that's what we needed to go. Torts came in and talked about it not being a matter of what's going on in the offensive zone, it's going to be a matter of how we're checking and how we're playing in the d-zone, and that was evident."
WEIRD GAME, INDEED: Nationwide Arena was rocking after the Blue Jackets scored three times in a span of 6:37 in the first period. Scott Hartnell started it, backhanding a rebound past Tuukka Rask after Lukas Sedlak made a neat play at the line to keep the puck in. Then it was Seth Jones ripping a one-timer from the right circle (courtesy of a Hartnell feed from behind the net), and Matt Calvert capped it off by scoring on his own rebound only 52 seconds after the Jones goal. Despite holding a 3-0 lead, Tortorella didn't feel like his team was in command of the game at all; it was going to be a battle and the Blue Jackets knew they were in for one, and though they didn't have their A-game at times, they'll take the points.
"It happened so quickly and so easy, you knew it was going to be one of those games," Tortorella said.