So what was Marchenko thinking as he came up the ice?
“I close my eyes,” he said, delivering a line he’s said multiple times before.
But in reality, he’s a goal scorer, and he acknowledged he has a nose for the net and where he wants to place his shot. He also had some knowledge of Shesterkin, having practiced at times with him in the offseason in Russia, and Marchenko had his mind made up when he came into the left circle.
“I kind of know where the net is going to be, and I try to control the puck and do a look,” he said. “When I get the puck, I know I will shoot low blocker. It’s nice to see the puck on net because if I miss, it’s a bit tough. I don’t think much in those moments, I just do what I do.”
The winning tally completed a two-goal, three-point night for Marchenko, who also hammered a power-play goal past Shesterkin’s blocker in the first period. It gives him points in six of the last seven games and a 4-5-9 line in that span.
It was also a crucial goal given what had happened in the 20 minutes before overtime, with the Blue Jackets giving away what seemed to be a safe lead and, in many ways, putting their season in the balance. Marchenko admitted it was a bit hard to process everything that happened, but in the end, he got the job done.
“It’s just crazy,” Marchenko said. “I’m a little shocked when it’s 4-4. But I just refresh everything from my brain and just do my job on the ice. Overtime, it feels like a new game starts and one goal gives us two points. I just think about that and try to forget the four goals.”
2. The third-period struggles brought back some bad memories for the Blue Jackets, and it’ll be interesting to see how Rick Bowness handles it.
After 40 minutes, the Blue Jackets seemed to be comfortably ahead of the last-place Rangers, and the Madison Square Garden crowd wasn’t happy. Boos rained down as the teams skated to the dressing room, but looking back, that might have been the worst thing that happened to the Blue Jackets.
The Rangers were a different team in the third period, scoring twice in the opening 54 seconds – one capping an extended shift in the CBJ zone, the other off a Blue Jackets turnover – and then chipping away from there. With 7:08 left, Will Borgen’s goal in a scramble made it 4-3, then Gabe Perreault’s second of the night – off a fantastic rush and feed from Borgen – tied things with 4:46 to go.
“The fans booed them off the ice in the second period,” Bowness noted. “We were expecting that (push), so I’d say we didn’t handle it very well.”
The scenes brought back echoes of the opening half of the season, when the Blue Jackets saw a bevy of third-period leads disappear. Sometimes, those moments are all about mind-set, and as the blown leads stacked up, the Blue Jackets looked at times like a team that had been conditioned to expect the worst.
Columbus had been much better at protecting such advantages under Bowness, and the head coach acknowledges he saw some things he didn’t like as the Rangers roared back in the third.
“First of all, I would look at our level of desperation going back for pucks,” he said. “That was certainly a problem. A couple of soft plays with the puck was a problem, and to give up that fourth goal when our defense never should have been up the ice pinching there. Listen, it was really self-inflicted. Look at the second goal. We stumble, we fall, they get it, they throw it right back at the net.
“A lot of it was self-inflicted, so we’ll address that and take the two points and get ready for tomorrow.”
It felt like the Blue Jackets had advanced past that point as a team, and now the challenge will be to push those ghosts aside and not let something like Monday night happen again.
“They got two quick ones right off the hop, and obviously that puts you on your heels,” forward Mathieu Olivier said. “I thought we gathered ourselves pretty good after that, but it’s a combination of them pushing hard and us maybe falling back on our heels that created the 4-4 and the comeback. But at the end of the day, the good thing for our squad is tomorrow we have another game, so we can get right back at it and we found a way to win.”
3. The unfortunate part about the third period is it overshadowed what had been a solid effort for the Blue Jackets for 40 minutes.
It’s too early in the season to truly call games “must-wins,” but Monday night had that feeling. Between the two losses coming out of the Olympic break and where New York stood in the standings – and with the trade deadline looming Friday – the Blue Jackets’ playoff hopes would have taken a major hit had they left Manhattan with anything other than two points.
Columbus seemed to understand that from the get-go, outshooting the Rangers by a 10-4 margin in the first and getting the opening tally from Adam Fantilli just 5:50 into the game and adding Marchenko’s power-play goal – the Jackets got a power play! – later in the frame. While the second period wasn’t as clean, Sean Monahan added a shorthanded goal and Olivier made it 4-0, much to the chagrin of the MSG faithful.
“We did a lot of really good things,” Bowness said. “The forecheck was good. They made some really good plays. The penalty kill was obviously good tonight getting the shorty, and we finally had a power play. We don’t get a lot of power plays, and they had to take a bench minor for us to get one. Like oh my gosh. But anyways, the specialty teams were good.
“Listen, we did a lot of really good things. I learned a lot about our team tonight. That’s the first time I’ve seen this, and I’ve learned a lot about our team and that’s a good thing.”
Another key was lengthening the lead, as the Blue Jackets found out the hard way Saturday that 2-0 wasn’t enough when the Islanders roared back with three goals in the middle frame. This time, Columbus got the lead to four, and it turned out to be a pretty good thing.
“We needed all four goals, but I thought obviously the first two periods we put ourselves in a good position to win,” Olivier said. “It’s a third period where we’re probably going to see a lot of video about that one tomorrow, which we deserve. But like Bones said after the game, we got two points, and we move on to tomorrow.”
