3 Keys: Blue Jackets vs. Lightning, Game 5 of Eastern First Round

Columbus looking to bounce back, avoid elimination against Tampa Bay

By Sean Farrell

NHL.com Independent Correspondent

August 19, 2020

No. 7 Blue Jackets vs. No. 2 Lightning

Noon ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS, SUN, FS-O

Tampa Bay leads best-of-7 series, 3-1

The Columbus Blue Jackets will try to avoid being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs when they play the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Wednesday.

"It's one game, an opportunity to win one game," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said Tuesday. "And I think we're excited about that challenge."

Columbus, which swept Tampa Bay, the Presidents' Trophy winner, in the first round last season, had not lost consecutive games and was 3-0 following a loss in the postseason prior to Game 4.

The Lightning won their second straight, 2-1, on Monday in Toronto, the East hub city.

"It was probably one of our better games in the series," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said.

Teams that have a 3-1 lead are 278-29 (90.6 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL series; 173 of those series ended in Game 5 (56.4 percent).

Tampa Bay holds a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 playoff series for the seventh time. The Lightning won five of the previous six series in Game 5.

"You know that when your season's in the balance how they're going to come out," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said Tuesday. "If we can match that desperation, it's just going to help."

Here are 3 keys to Game 5:

1. Killer instinct

The Blue Jackets have shown their resilience several times in the postseason.

Columbus bounced back for a 3-1 win in Game 2 after losing the fourth-longest game in NHL history in the series opener when Brayden Point scored at 10:27 of the fifth overtime to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 win.

The Blue Jackets recovered to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs and win a best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifier after blowing a 3-0 lead with less than four minutes remaining in the third period of Game 4 before losing 4-3 in overtime.

"You never want to give a team life, especially a team like Columbus," Tampa Bay forward Tyler Johnson said Tuesday. "They're a quality opponent, so we want to end it as much as we can here."

2. Sticking to the game plan

The Blue Jackets have remained true to their disciplined and aggressive forechecking style of play throughout the postseason. That won't change with their season on the line.

"We're a team that has an idea of how we need to play to be successful and make a team come 200 [feet] through us and make it hard on them, and then we pounce on our opportunities," Foligno said. "And that's how we played all year long. We're not going to change because of the situation we're in."

3. Silencing Lightning power play

The Blue Jackets have killed 11 straight power plays, including each of the Lightning's 10 opportunities. Columbus' penalty kill success rate of 91.3 percent in nine games is second to the Washington Capitals (95.5) among teams in the first round.

The Lightning power play was tied with the Maple Leafs for fifth in the NHL during the regular season (23.1 percent). Tampa Bay was 2-for-5 in three round-robin games.