Dubinsky, Blue Jackets top Panthers in shootout

COLUMBUS -- Brandon Dubinsky scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.
Two goals, one in overtime, were taken off the board, and Panthers forwards Aleksander Barkov and Nick Bjugstad hit the post on two of three chances in the shootout.
Rookie Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves for Columbus (26-29-8); the Blue Jackets have four regulation losses in their past 19 games (11-4-4).

"It's the mentality we have," Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. "We work extremely hard and as the game goes on we get better. We have a lot of confidence now with our goaltending and our defense."
Roberto Luongo faced one shot in the first period and finished with 22 saves for Florida (35-18-8).

The Panthers, 3-0-2 in the past five, led 1-0 after the first period when Barkov scored his 19th goal of the season at 11:59. He has three goals in two games after missing six games with a head injury.
"We were really good the first half of the game, took control of the game," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "After that, I thought we were a little sleepy. I didn't think we had the jump, but you know what, (Columbus) battled hard and they've been playing well the last 10 games."
Despite the sluggish first period, Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella did not see any panic in his players.
"It's a good thing for us to go through," Tortorella said. "We talked between the first and second periods how well we've been playing. There's no sense losing our minds over it. We were bad. But it was still 1-0."
The Panthers had a 2-0 lead wiped out at 1:33 of the second period when Tortorella successfully challenged that left wing Derek MacKenzie was offside before a shot by Vincent Trocheck beat Korpisalo.

Trocheck then scored at 10:28, using a screen by forward Garrett Wilson, for his 20th of the season, from the right circle. The score came seconds after Blue Jackets right wing Brandon Saad shot left of the goal on a shorthanded breakaway.
The Blue Jackets rallied to go ahead 3-2 on goals by Scott Hartnell, defenseman Seth Jones and Saad.
Hartnell, in possibly his last game for the Blue Jackets with the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday, scored his 20th of the season at 11:04 by taking a pass from Alex Wennberg and deking Luongo to make it 2-1.
"If it goes five, six, seven minute without us scoring after (Florida) did, who knows how the game goes," Tortorella said. "That was one hell of a play by Wennberg. That's just skill and Scott made a good play with his patience."
Jones made it 2-2 with power-play goal at 3:07 of the third, his first goal in 22 games since being acquired from the Nashville Predators in a trade for forward Ryan Johansen on Jan. 6. His last goal came against the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 14.

"I'm just trying to get pucks to the net and one went in," Jones said.
Saad followed his own shot and scored from in front of the net at 7:21 for the 3-2 lead. His 24 goals are an NHL career high.
Panthers forward Logan Shaw's power-play goal, his fifth of the season, tied the game 3-3 at 14:18.
Florida had to survive a delay of game penalty to defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for shooting the puck over the glass with 15 seconds left in the third period. The Blue Jackets had a goal disallowed with 3:55 remaining in overtime when it was ruled to have been hit in with a high stick by Cam Atkinson.
Dubinsky's deciding goal came in the top of the third round of the shootout. Korpisalo stopped Trocheck for the win.

"It looked like we might get two points, then we might get none and we ended up getting one at the end," Gallant said. "We'll take it."
Panthers management completed three trades Saturday to help continue their push to making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Panthers acquired forward Jiri Hudler from the Calgary Flames for a second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, forward Teddy Purcell from the Edmonton Oilers for a third-round pick in 2016, and defenseman Jakub Kindl from the Detroit Red Wings for a sixth-round pick in the 2017 Draft..