Winning Thoughts: Blue Jackets battle to much-needed win in Utah

After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets' victory.

BLUE JACKETS 3, MAMMOTH 2 (OT)

1. The Blue Jackets needed these two points to end the road trip before playing seven of the next eight at home.

We’re a bit too early in the season to truly call games “must-win,” but Sunday's game in Utah felt as close to that as you can get in early January.

The Blue Jackets lost the first three contests of their four-game Western swing through San Jose, Las Vegas and Colorado, and a fourth straight setback would have left the Blue Jackets nine points behind the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Seven back is still a long way to go, but the fact that the Blue Jackets are headed back to Columbus with some momentum means these upcoming games in Nationwide Arena provide a huge opportunity to stack up wins and pull closer in the race.

It was also key for the Blue Jackets to build on what they believed was a solid performance Saturday in Colorado. Sure, it was a 4-0 loss, but the Avs – who extended their home winning streak to 17 games with the victory – have done that to pretty much everyone this season.

What the Blue Jackets liked in that game, though, was their effort and attention to detail defensively against some of the top-scoring players in the league. Zach Werenski said the Blue Jackets at least played to their standard of work and structure in Colorado, and it was crucial to keep that going against the Mammoth.

“It was a great step for us,” goaltender Jet Greaves said. “Obviously it was important to get a win, come home from this road trip on a positive note and bring some positive momentum home. Z talked about it, I think a few guys talked about it – I think there were a lot of positive things yesterday. It was important for us to follow that up with a positive performance today and get on the right side of it.”

The Blue Jackets did just that against Utah, outshooting a team playing for its own playoff positioning by a 37-27 margin and getting key contributions from up and down the lineup, including four lines that turned in positive expected goal shares.

Mikael Pyyhtiä scored his first goal of the season, Greaves made 25 stops, the Blue Jackets got power-play goals from Charlie Coyle and Dmitri Voronkov, and Columbus survived having to play most of the game with five defensemen thanks to an injury suffered by Denton Mateychuk on his first shift.

“It’s an important win, last on the road, to give us confidence,” Kirill Marchenko said. “We played the right way. Everybody worked hard, a lot of blocked shots and good stuff in the (offensive) zone, too. I’m happy to win today.”

2. It’s a lot easier to win hockey games when you win the special teams battle.

Columbus stepped on the ice in Salt Lake City having lost five of the last six, and the Blue Jackets were on the wrong side of the special teams battle in four of those five setbacks.

You can make hockey a complicated game, but sometimes it can be simple as winning on the power play and the penalty kill. Special teams proved crucial in the win over the Mammoth, as the Blue Jackets denied both Utah power plays, while Coyle’s power-play tally tied the score late in the second before Voronkov tipped Werenski’s pass past goalie Vitek Vaněček in overtime for the winner.

“Huge,” Coyle said. “We haven’t gotten the end result in a few games now, and we all think about it. Hey, it’s a big part of the game if you can get a power-play goal or two. You can give yourself a pretty good chance to win a hockey game, so when we’re not converting on this, it can take a toll over time. We put in two tonight, so that’s huge, and we win a hockey game.”

And while it seems like the power play is all about skill – and Voronkov’s quick redirection past Vaněček was a thing of beauty – the gritty, effort plays are just as important. Coyle’s goal came from just inches from the line in a scrum, as his original shot went off the post and bounced to the netfront before Adam Fantilli jammed it back in the crease. And Voronkov’s winner was set up by a great keep-in at the line by Marchenko, who chased down a loose puck under pressure and found Werenski with plenty of open ice ahead of him.

“We held on to some pucks, we won a lot of puck battles,” head coach Dean Evason said. “We didn’t get frustrated with it and we came up with those loose pucks and (that) gave us second, third opportunities to try to score goals.”

3. The five defensemen the Blue Jackets played the majority of the game with turned in a yeoman’s effort.

Evason did not have a postgame update on Mateychuk, who suffered an upper body injury when he was checked into the glass at the end of his first shift by Brandon Tanev. That meant the Blue Jackets had to skate 57-plus minutes with just five defensemen – and without one of their most dependable minutes-eaters.

In the end, Werenski played 27:18, while Ivan Provorov skated 25:07. Egor Zamula (22:21), Damon Severson (21:16) and Dante Fabbro (20:43) all topped 20 minutes as well. They weren’t easy minutes, either, as the five combined for 11 blocked shots – one in particular stung Provorov on the arm – and assists from Werenski and Provorov.

“It happened quick,” Coyle said of the Mateychuk injury. “It’s not ideal, but we have guys who can step up. We tried to get some hold-ups so our D-men who were playing more minutes, they weren’t getting plastered on the glass and we can give them some breathing room because everyone has to play a little more because of that and pull the rope a little bit.

“Hats off to our D-men for doing that. It’s not an easy task, especially at the end of a road trip, back-to-back, playing that much.”

What perhaps made Evason happiest, though, was the team effort that led to those five defensemen being able to succeed.

“Our forwards did a good job of protecting them, too,” Evason said. “We didn’t turn pucks over at the blue line. We knew we had to get pucks deep when we were a little bit tired. We knew there’s five guys back there. We didn’t have to tell them. They were talking about it on the bench. The forwards were saying, ‘Let’s protect the D, get pucks deep, make sure we can get them off the ice.’

“They were intelligent pinches when they had their opportunities, so we were very impressed with all five of them.”