FINAL: Blackhawks 4, Blue Jackets 3

The Blue Jackets lost a 4-3 final to Chicago on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.

Quote of the Game

Cam Atkinson: "I think we just got away from our game. I don't know if we thought it was going to be easy tonight, but we just went back on our heels. They're going to make some plays. They're a good team. You give them time and space, they're going to capitalize."

CBJ Standouts

Quick Recap

It didn't take Columbus long to jump on the visitors, scoring goals at 1:03 and 3:13 to take a 2-0 lead.
Del Zotto got the party started after the Jackets had three scoring chances in the first minute, as Alexandre Texier fed him a puck at the left point and he scored through a screen off the glove of Chicago goalie Kevin Lankinen to make it 1-0. Just over two minutes later, Roslovic fired a centering pass from the right-wing wall and Atkinson was alone in front to force the puck past Lankinen and over the line to tie the score.
But a pair of back-to-back penalties on the Blue Jackets changed the momentum of the game near the midway point of the game. Columbus survived 38 seconds of a 5-on-3 thanks to big stops by Elvis Merzlikins on Patrick Kane and Kirby Dach, but Alex DeBrincat made it a 2-1 game with just six seconds left on the second penalty as he hammed a one-timer past te CBJ goalie from the left circle. The goal, off a pass from Calvin de Haan, came at 10:13 and made it 2-1.
The Blackhawks then tied the score with 2:58 left in the period moments after a CBJ icing. Carl Soderberg won the faceoff and eventually scored, as a shot from the pinballed toward the net and Soderberg jammed it home right as Merzlikins reached to poke-check it away.
Chicago then kept the momentum going through the second period, creating a number of transition chances and taking a 4-2 lead in the frame. The go-ahead goal came just 3:07 into the period, as Wyatt Kalynuk fired from the right point and the puck got behind Merzlikins through a screen. Kevin Stenlund tried to keep the puck out but it crossed the line by an inch before the CBJ forward slid it under Merzlikins to cover it. Columbus also challenged for goaltender interference but the league ruled there was incidental contact between Merzlikins and Pius Suter.
Columbus had a chance to tie later in the period when Kole Sherwood used his speed to create a breakaway, but Lankinen made a shoulder save on his shot. Then the Blackhawks doubled their lead at 16:40 on a beautiful transition goal, with DeBrincat feeding Dach in the middle of the ice before a pass to Dylan Strome in the right circle led to a one-timer past Merzlikins to make it 4-2.
The Blue Jackets had so thrust to start the third period with Alexandre Texier firing wide in transition, then Del Zotto and Oliver Bjorkstrand being denied by Lankinen after Chicago turnovers, and those saves were huge for the Blackhawks to keep the 4-2 lead. Del Zotto also set up Max Domi with just over six minutes left, but Lankinen stopped his try as part of a big third period for the Chicago goalie.
Patrik Laine did beat the Chicago goalie with 49.0 seconds left and an extra attacker on the ice off a cross-zone feed from Domi for his first goal since March 11. That made it 4-3, but that was as close as Columbus would get.

3 Takeaways

1. A sandwich game: The Blue Jackets were great in the first five minutes, all over the Blackhawks in the last 20 minutes ... and, well, the middle wasn't exactly a tasty entree. Chicago slowly took over the game in the first and then really put the pedal to the metal in the middle frame, earning a 16-7 edge in shots on goal earning 24 shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the frame. That proved to be the difference, too, as the Blackhawks notched a pair of goals in the second period to earn the win. "They made plays," Atkinson said fo Chicago in the middle frame. "Our backchecks were terrible, our sticks were terrible. We left Elvis out to dry and the onus is on us, the leaders."
   2. A weird day: Columbus was surely rocked by the realization that speculation had become reality over the previous 24 hours with the trade deadline nearing. First, veteran forward Riley Nash, who was out with an injury, was sent to Toronto on Friday evening. Then, Saturday evening, the Blue Jackets traded defenseman David Savard, who played the fourth-most games in team history, to Tampa Bay for a pair of draft picks. That meant there was opportunity in the lineup -- four players went in Saturday -- but it also meant a big chunk of the team was gone. That perhaps led to an uneven effort, from the strong start, a third period in which Columbus had a 14-3 edge in shots on goal, to the middle part of the game where Chicago ran rampant. "We always talk about worth ethic is the one thing you can control," Del Zotto said. "There were a couple of lazy plays that are unacceptable."
   3. A new normal: Let's face it, the Blue Jackets are playing out the string on the season. The trades of Savard and Nash have made that abundantly clear, not to mention the season-ending injuries to Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski. The rest of the campaign will be about seeing how certain players handle new roles, while also trying to re-establish a culture of relentless hard work that team players and coaches have said has ebbed this year. The first effort was uneven in that regard, as noted above. On the player side, some players shined -- Del Zotto and Texier had notable buzz to their games -- while others were flat. It will be an interesting time of evaluation for the Jackets to come.

Notable

Texier has six assists in the past nine games. ... Domi extended his point streak to three games (2-2-4). … Laine ended an eight-game pointless streak with his goal. ... Columbus fell to 2-8-1 in the last 11 games. … Soderberg, who has seven goals on the season, has scored four times vs. Columbus this year in six games, while DeBrincat has three goals and eight points. … Kane notched an assist, giving him a 4-10-14 line in seven games vs. Columbus this year. … Columbus fell to 2-3-2 in the season series vs. Chicago.

Roster Report

Columbus made four changes to the lineup from Thursday night's game, with forwards Sherwood and Stenlund going in along with defenseman Scott Harrington and Gabriel Carlsson. They were inserted in place of Nick Foligno (upper-body injury), Liam Foudy (sent to AHL Cleveland), Werenski (injury) and Dean Kukan (healthy scratch).

Up Next

Columbus and Chicago complete the two-game series Monday night at 7 p.m.