The Columbus Blue Jackets have to get back to work following the fanfare of playing in front of an electric atmosphere in a huge stadium and for a national audience.
Winners of four in a row and holding the top wild card in the Eastern Conference, the Blue Jackets open a four-game road trip on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The weekend’s Stadium Series turned out to be an emotional one at Ohio Stadium, home to the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes football team.
Columbus was successful in its first appearance in the spectacle, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Saturday in front of 94,751 fans, the league’s second-highest attendance ever.
The Blue Jackets honored the late Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, by arriving in attire inspired by the former Columbus star who was tragically killed on Aug. 29 at the age of 31. The Gaudreau family led the Blue Jackets out of the tunnel and into the stadium.
Columbus beat Detroit on both ends of the home-and-home series, leapfrogging the Red Wings in the standings.
“Since the (4 Nations Face-Off) break, the pace of play has upped and a lot of guys are stepping up,” Mathieu Olivier said. “You add the Stadium Series to that, the in-season series against the Wings, it was like the perfect storm and obviously quite a magical moment tonight.”
The leader on the club’s blueline, Zach Werenski scored in overtime to lift the Blue Jackets to a 7-6 victory over Tampa Bay on Nov. 21 in Columbus.
Werenski, a Michigan native who skated for the Wolverines, tops Columbus with 46 assists and 64 points. Right winger Kirill Marchenko has a team-best 24 goals and is second with 60 points.
The Lightning are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday.
Florida captain Aleksander Barkov recorded his first multi-goal outing of the season, but the Panthers had to withstand a final six-on-four Lightning power play to snap their eight-game winning streak.
Down 2-0 in the third period, the Lightning’s Brayden Point’s notched his team-leading 32nd goal. Captain Victor Hedman rang a shot off the post inside the final second for the club’s first regulation setback since losing 4-1 at home to the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 28.
“We had some good looks, some good chances,” Point said after his squad failed to score on all seven power plays. “(Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky) made some good saves or they got sticks on things. There are a couple of power plays, obviously, we would like back, couldn’t get set up, but it was just one of those games where the chances we got just weren’t going in.”
On the second game of a back-to-back, Tampa Bay likely will turn to backup Jonas Johansson against the Blue Jackets. The Swedish netminder has not played since the Chicago loss due to a knee injury.
The Lightning enter play Tuesday five points behind both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida in the Atlantic Division.
–Field Level Media
