Blue Jackets show grit this time, top Bruins in overtime

BOSTON -- TD Garden was rocking Monday. Boston Bruins forward Riley Nash had just scored a power-play goal, with the primary assist going to Ryan Donato, making his NHL debut, and it appeared that the home team would coast.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were down by two goals, it was late in the second period, and some fans might have recalled that the last time this opponent was in town, Dec. 18, it devolved into a blowout with the Bruins scoring four consecutive goals in the third period.
But this is not that Blue Jackets team anymore. They were not about to roll over.
Twenty-five seconds later, Sonny Milano scored to bring the Blue Jackets within one, and 5:38 into the third period, Thomas Vanek tied the game. And though it would take overtime, and a goal by Cam Atkinson at 2:55 to win it 5-4, who the Blue Jackets are now could be seen in that Milano goal.

They are a team that has won eight straight games.
They are a team that has gained, as Atkinson put it, maturity.
"Can't crumble," forward Nick Foligno said. "We've just got to find ways to get wins. So I'm really proud of the group. That's not an easy game, because we did not play well. Some nights you're not going to play well but you get results, and that was tonight."
So, no, they were not happy with how they had played Monday. Not with many aspects of their game. Not nearly as angry as they were after that 7-2 loss on Dec. 18, of course, after giving up seven goals for the second time in a week and 20 goals in a four-game span. But not content, nonetheless.
That is the difference between the Blue Jackets in December, and the Blue Jackets now.
"There's so much to play for," Foligno said. "This is a really crucial [point in the season]. And we know what we're up against. I was really proud of the guys. We can't pack it in. We're not a team that's like that anyway, but we just knew that we got to find a way to get something out of this."
The win gave the Blue Jackets (40-28-5) 85 points in 73 games, tied with the Philadelphia Flyers (37-25-11). Philadelphia, though, has one more regulation/overtime win (35-34), and is in third place in the Metropolitan Division; Columbus leads the New Jersey Devils by three points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

It was a game that defenseman Ryan Murray said the Blue Jackets probably didn't deserve to win.
But they found a way. They figured it out.
They did what they hadn't done in December.
"We stuck with it and that's what good teams do," Atkinson said. "It wasn't our prettiest by any means, but we found a way to get two huge points."
Two needed points.
The Blue Jackets had scored the game's first goal, by Boone Jenner at 4:15 of the first. But they allowed the Bruins to take over, with goals by Donato, Brad Marchand, and Nash for a 3-1 lead late in the second. And it could have been worse. Joonas Korpisalo, roundly praised by his teammates and coach, kept the Blue Jackets in it with 14 saves in the first period and 10 more in the second.
Then came the goal by Milano, and the one by Vanek, and one more by Artemi Panarin. Even when the Bruins tied it once again, at 11:50 of the third, 20 seconds after the Panarin goal, the Blue Jackets were not cowed. They took the game to overtime, and that was where they did what they might not have done earlier in the season.

"Give them credit, they just ended up finding a way," coach John Tortorella said. "I still think we're a nervous hockey club through it. We score the fourth goal, they come right back and all we have to do is get the puck out, they tie it up right after -- but we stayed with it.
"You know, we have played games, outstanding games, and we lost. I thought we [stunk] tonight and we won."
And sometimes, especially this deep in the season, with points at a premium and fewer and fewer games to get them, that's all that matters. All that matters is that the Blue Jackets left Boston with two points, with their spot in the playoffs that much closer, with the assurance of surviving a game they didn't have to survive.
"We should feel good about it," Foligno said. "As bad as some things went, and we didn't play our best game, we've got to feel good about finding a way to win that.
"I think guys know we got away with one. Let's not forget that they dominated some parts of that game because of the things we didn't want to do. But we should learn from that. If anything, just learn from it. Know that we made it so hard on ourselves and we found a way to win. If we just play a little bit smarter, a little bit harder, we can make it a little easier on ourselves and get more wins."