Tortorella hits milestone as Jackets top Predators in OT
Jan 10, 2019
Artemi Panarin scored two power-play goals, including the game-winner 1:22 into overtime, to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-3 win over the visiting Nashville Predators on Thursday.
Boone Jenner also scored twice, Zach Werenski recorded two assists, and Columbus coach John Tortorella earned his 600th win -- the most ever by a U.S.-born coach and two more than Nashville's Peter Laviolette.
Nick Bonino, Viktor Arvidsson and Mattias Ekholm had goals for the Predators, whose three-game winning streak came to an end. However, Nashville earned at least one point for the seventh game in a row (5-0-2).
Columbus improved to 9-3-1 in its past 13 games and 14-3-1 following a loss. The Blue Jackets' record on Thursdays moved to 12-0-0, tying the longest winning streak to start a season on any specific day in NHL history.
In a matchup of Finnish goaltenders, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 30 shots for Columbus. Fellow Finn Pekka Rinne -- playing in his 600th NHL game -- made 29 saves. Rinne started and finished both ends of a back-to-back set for the first time since November 2015.
Korpisalo received the nod because the Blue Jackets announced earlier that No. 1 goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had been removed from the roster. Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen did not say Bobrovsky had been suspended, but the punishment was stiff.
Tortorella pulled the two-time Vezina Trophy winner almost 49 minutes into a 4-0 loss at Tampa Bay on Tuesday when Bobrovsky allowed the fourth goal. Kekalainen issued a statement that discussed his club's culture, saying the netminder had "failed to meet those expectations and values."
In the first period, a pass by Josh Anderson hopped past Ekholm's stick and over to Jenner, who backhanded his seventh goal at 6:26 for a 1-0 lead. Jenner ended his 14-game drought without a tally.
Bonino finally put Nashville on the board with his ninth marker at 4:31 on the third period just after Columbus killed the game's first power play. Ekholm earned an assist.
Panarin broke the 1-1 tie at 13:14 of the third period on Columbus' first man advantage, and Jenner scored his second goal of the game just 11 seconds later for a 3-1 lead.
However, Arvidsson and Ekholm scored goals 38 seconds apart to tie the game at 3 with 4:15 remaining. Ekholm has a five-game point streak (three goals, six assists)
--Field Level Media