Sergei Bobrovsky, Blue Jackets shut out Ducks

ANAHEIM -- Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves for his second shutout of the season, and Sam Gagner and Brandon Saad each scored twice to help the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.
Columbus (3-3-1) went 2-1-1 on its four-game road trip.

Bobrovsky, who has started all seven Blue Jackets games this season, had a 1.25 goals-against average and a .960 save percentage in the four games. He made 32 saves in a 3-0 win at the Dallas Stars last Saturday to open the trip.
"He's been solid right on through," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "That's what we were talking about in the third period: Let's play for him a little bit here and try to help him out because he bailed us out in a lot of ways."
Tortotella said the Blue Jackets helped out Bobrovsky by winning the "battle of the blue" with solid play directly in front of their goalie. Columbus had the puck for long stretches to help lighten Bobrovsky's load.
"For us, the biggest thing is trying to limit some of the chances and limit some of the shots in front of him so he can stay fresh," Gagner said. "He's been playing unbelievable, and it's something we get a lot of confidence from."

Nick Foligno, whose eight points lead Columbus, had three assists, and Alex Wennberg had two.
Two nights after scoring five goals in the second period of a 6-1 win against the Nashville Predators, the Ducks (3-4-2) were on the other end of a big period, allowing four goals to the Blue Jackets in the first.
"That's what makes it so difficult to swallow, because the guys played so well in the last game," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. "I thought tonight we came out flat. The energy wasn't there. We weren't skating and we weren't doing the things that we like to do, and it showed."
Bobrovsky appreciated the effort in front of him.
"You can see in the past few games how hard we compete and work, how hard our defenders play and how responsible each guy is," Bobrovsky said. "It is fun to be on this team."
Gagner gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 10:12 with his first goal with the Blue Jackets when he stuffed a rebound underneath goalie John Gibson's pads.
Saad banked one off the crossbar 21 seconds later to make it 2-0. The goal initially was waved off, but video review determined the puck completely crossed the goal line.
Saad scored again at 13:50 for a 3-0 Columbus lead, and Gagner converted on the power play 20 seconds later to make it 4-0.
Gibson made 28 saves for Anaheim before being replaced by Dustin Tokarski with 9:47 remaining. Tokarski made five saves.
"We got outplayed by a hungrier hockey club tonight," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We were nowhere near NHL-caliber playing in our performance tonight."

Goal of the game

Gagner's first goal set the tone for Columbus. He got to the front of the Anaheim net after Gibson stopped Scott Hartnell's shot, found the puck and put it under the Ducks goalie to make it 1-0. "It was a timely goal, a great play, and we started to roll after that," Foligno said.

Saves of the game

Bobrovsky nearly lost his shutout bid in the final seconds, but he made a save on Andrew Cogliano's tip attempt from point-blank range at 19:44, and then grabbed Shea Theodore's wrist shot with his glove at 19:56 after appearing to momentarily lose the puck through a screen.

Unsung moment of the game

It was Getzlaf who inadvertently helped set up Saad's second goal. Trying for a shorthanded goal, Getzlaf took a slap shot but missed wide. He tried to recover the puck but turned it over to Wennberg, who led the rush that resulted in Saad's goal for a 3-0 lead.

Highlight of the game

Saad took a pass from Foligno off the end boards, skated through the high slot and snapped a top-shelf wrist shot that went high over Gibson's glove, off the crossbar and in for his first goal.

They said it

"We thought this group developed a work ethic coming from the Philadelphia [Flyers] game on the road (a 3-2 win on Oct. 20). That all went out the window tonight. They outworked us. They competed a lot harder than we did in the small areas. The difference in the hockey game was that they wanted it more than we did. You can't defend that effort."-- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
"We wanted to grind them down. We know what kind of team they are. They are a tough team to play against, especially coming in here off a back-to-back. We did a good job of establishing a forecheck in the first period and created some chances down low and opened up the game from there." -- Blue Jackets forward Sam Gagner

Need to know

Ducks goalie Jonathan Bernier sat out his third straight game with an upper-body injury. … Anaheim defenseman Clayton Stoner returned to the lineup after sitting out the Nashville game because of an upper-body injury. … The Blue Jackets power play is second in the NHL at 33.3 percent (Predators, 37.0 percent).

What's next

Blue Jackets:Home against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-SW, NHL.TV)
Ducks: At Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, PRIME, NHL.TV)