Columbus 2, Calgary 1
When: 9:00 PM ET, Friday, February 5, 2016
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta
Referees:
Chris Lee, Ian Walsh
Linesmen:
Shane Heyer, Brian Mach
Attendance:
19289
By The Sports Xchange
CALGARY, Alberta -- William Karlsson scored two rare goals Friday and the Columbus Blue Jackets squeezed a 2-1 win out of a Western Canadian team for a second-straight night.
The center converted a cross-ice pass from left winger Matt Calvert on an odd-man rush at 1:42 of the third period for the game winner over the Calgary Flames. Karlsson had one goal in his past 29 games and now has six for the season.
"I haven't scored much this year so it's obviously a great feeling to score not once, but twice," said the 23-year-old Swede.
"(The second goal) was quick fire," he added. "I didn't think much about how much space there was, but maybe I was lucky and it went in."
Left winger Jiri Hudler scored for Calgary (22-25-3).
The Blue Jackets (21-28-5) won four of their past five games and six straight in Calgary.
Columbus beat the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 in a shootout the night and head home from Western Canada feeling good before playing Tuesday.
"It was an ugly game; it was just ugly," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "I said (during the second intermission) that we can make it as ugly as we want here, just don't open up and give anything for free.
"They spent some time in our end but I think we did a really good job of keeping everything to the outside."
The teams are both in the running to land coveted American prospect Auston Matthews as the top pick in the 2016 NHL draft. They are both among six clubs tied with the fewest points in the NHL with 47.
The Blue Jackets continue to rely on Finnish rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in goal because of injuries to their two veterans -- Sergei Bobrovsky and Curtis McElhinney.
With Korpisalo in goal the Blue Jackets are 4-1-1 in their past six games.
Columbus captain Brandon Dubinsky gave Korpisalo massive praise.
"His confidence has grown and the game has slowed down so much from his first couple starts," said the center. "He's won six of eight games -- something like that -- and in spectacular fashion. The last two (games) weren't easy ones."
Korpisalo made 30 stops on Friday while his Finnish countryman, Karri Ramo, had 16 saves for the Flames.
"I didn't have many shots in the last few minutes and guys were blocking shots. It was a pretty ugly period but we scored a goal and got the point," Korpisalo said.
Hudler, a first-line winger, scored just his seventh goal in 43 games at 7:09 of the first, snapping a shot over Korpisalo's glove from 15 feet out while in full stride after taking a pass from Monahan.
Karlsson took a nice feed from defenseman Seth Jones on a rush and banged it in to tie the game at 9:39 of the second.
The Flames bemoaned the lack of offense at home against the Eastern Conference's weakest team.
"They're a hard working team and they play the right way by finishing checks and they're fast," said captain Mark Giordano, a defenseman.
"They are a hard team to play against but if we'd eliminated some mistakes we'd have created more odd-man rushes and when we did create them we couldn't score."
Both Karlsson goals were the results of odd-man rushes, which Flames head coach Bob Hartley didn't appreciate.
"Two mistakes that we need to learn from," he said. "It's part of our process with our young group and obviously it stings. But we can only learn from them."
Outside the other dressing room, Tortorella was happy with his youngsters' clean game.
"There wasn't mistakes giving up glorious scoring chances like with what happened in Vancouver the last five minutes," he said.
"A lot of good things going on with our kids. We tried to use the whole bench. I shortened it up a bit at the end, but I thought everyone contributed.
"We had a good weekend here."
NOTES: Out with injuries for Columbus were G Curtis McElhinney (ankle), G Sergei Bobrovsky (groin), RW David Clarkson (upper body) and D David Savard (oblique). Healthy scratches were RW Jared Boll and D Justin Falk. ... Calgary's scratches were LW Brandon Bollig, C Markus Granlund and D Jakub Nakladal. ... Nakladal would have made his NHL debut had TJ Brodie not been deemed healthy. Brodie left Wednesday's game against Nashville in the second period after taking a slap shot to the knee and did not practice Thursday with what the Flames originally feared was a serious injury. ... Friday's game was the second of Flames D Dennis Wideman's 20-game suspension for checking a linesman on Jan. 27. ... Friday's game was the Blue Jackets' 14th of 18 back-to-back games this season. ... LW Scott Hartnell, the Blue Jackets' leading scorer, is four goals from 300 for his career.
Top Game Performances
Columbus |
|
Calgary |
William Karlsson 2 |
Points |
Jiri Hudler 1 |
William Karlsson 2 |
Goals |
Jiri Hudler 1 |
Matt Calvert 2 |
Assists |
T.J. Brodie 1 |
N/A |
Power Play Goals |
N/A |
N/A |
Short Handed Goals |
N/A |
Joonas Korpisalo .968 |
Save Percentage |
Karri Ramo .889 |
Joonas Korpisalo 30 |
Saves |
Karri Ramo 16 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Shots |
Goals |
Power Play |
Penalty Kill |
Penalty Mins |
Face Offs Won |
Columbus
|
18 |
2 |
0-0 |
1-1 |
4 |
33 |
Calgary
|
31 |
1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
2 |
38 |
Upcoming Games
-
Calgary will play their next game on the road against Vancouver. The Flames have a W/L % of .455 after a win and .429 after a loss.
-
Columbus will play their next game at home against NY Islanders. The Blue Jackets have a W/L % of .476 after a win and .333 after a loss.