Winning Thoughts: Blue Jackets come together to beat Devils

After CBJ wins, we'll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we'll remember from the Blue Jackets' victory.

BLUE JACKETS 5, DEVILS 3

1. A win like this could be a shot in the arm to the Blue Jackets.

Over the last week-plus, Columbus had lost four in a row and watched two more of its heart-and-soul players – top offensive threat Kirill Marchenko and physical presence Mathieu Olivier – join captain Boone Jenner and alternate captain Erik Gudbranson on the injured list.

They’d still played some good hockey without those stalwarts, but a few blown third-period leads meant they arrived Monday to take on Metropolitan rival New Jersey on a four-game losing skid and in last place in the division.

The Blue Jackets maintained frustration wasn’t building, that they just had to stick together and would come out the other side better for it.

Then fight night at the Prudential Center broke out, and the turn of events got everyone engaged.

It all started with a scrum on a CBJ power play early in the second period, as Dmitri Voronkov dropped the gloves with New Jersey defenseman Brenden Dillon. A few minutes later, a cantankerous shift led to the first NHL fight for Adam Fantilli. Voronkov then had to answer the bell again, going with Stefan Noesen. Just 12 seconds later, veteran defenseman Brendan Smith took exception to a post-whistle scrum and went with Paul Cotter.

Add it all up and the Blue Jackets took 28 penalty minutes in the second period alone on the way to 34 for the game, and this was the first CBJ game since Nov. 14, 2015, vs. Arizona in which both teams topped 30 PIMs. It also marked the first time the Blue Jackets were assessed four fighting majors since March 3, 2015, in a game against Washington.

It’s fitting this is the Jackets’ 25th anniversary season because this game felt like one right out of the inaugural season. And a funny thing can happen amid such high tensions. Even without Olivier and Gudbranson on the ice, the Blue Jackets rose to the occasion in handling the extracurriculars, all while scoring five of the last six goals to earn the 5-3 win.

“Everything that unfolded tonight, it was just us sticking up for each other and having each other’s backs, and I think that’s important in a long season,” Zach Werenski said. “It’s a great win for our group.”

Time will tell if we’ll look back in a few months and be able to say this was a moment that helped define the Blue Jackets’ season, but it also seems fair to say the Jackets passed a unique test with flying colors.

“I think that’s the one thing that I took away from this game and I think we all did – just how we stuck together through the good and the bad,” forward Miles Wood said. “That was a tough second period there. We didn’t back down and we got through it as a team, and that’s the most important part.”

2. Everyone pulled the rope to help the Blue Jackets finish off the victory.

You can look up and down the lineup and identify something pretty much every player did to help the Blue Jackets get the victory.

On the stat sheet, Sean Monahan (two goals), Charlie Coyle (a goal and two assists), Werenski (two assists) and Miles Wood (goal and an assist) helped lead the way. Denton Mateychuk also tallied the opening goal after the Jackets fell into an early 2-0 hole, while Cole Sillinger, Isac Lundeström and Ivan Provorov had assists. Elvis Merzlikins shook off the two New Jersey goals in the first three-plus minutes and made 30 saves, many of them at key times.

Then there were the pair of fights by Voronkov and the scraps from Fantilli and Smith. Wood and Brendan Gaunce tied for the team lead with four hits apiece, while every CBJ player to step into the faceoff circle finished at least 50 percent on draws.

“You have to be engaged when stuff like that is going on,” Werenski said. “It’s a physical game. It felt like a playoff game in a sense. Everyone stepped up when it was their time to step up, whether it was hits or fights, big blocks, big goals. Everyone kind of did everything. Just a huge team effort.”

And while many will focus on how the Blue Jackets responded to the physical challenge presented by New Jersey, head coach Dean Evason said everything he saw was what he expected from his team.

“This is our group,” Evason said. “That’s our group. That’s how we play. I hope just because we got into a few fights tonight that it doesn’t look abnormal to you because we work our (butts) off each night. We haven’t gotten rewarded as of late. We got rewarded tonight with some breaks and some bounces and we stuck together, which we talked about before the game, and got the job done.”

3. Holding a third-period lead could be a good sign of things to come for the Blue Jackets.

Everyone knew the narrative going in, as Columbus had let a string of third-period leads get away from them while posting a 5-5-5 record in the month of November.

On the opening day of December, they were immediately greeted with a similar test. Goals just 33 seconds apart by Coyle and Monahan gave the Blue Jackets a 4-2 lead with just under 13 minutes to go, and it’s weird how hockey seems to put you right back in similar tests time and time again.

This time, the Blue Jackets passed. It might have seemed a little dicey when Timo Meier’s power-play goal with 8:09 to go cut the lead to just one, but Wood answered off a great forecheck and feed from Coyle 1:40 after that to make it 5-3.

New Jersey pulled its goalie and had an extra attacker on the ice for more than four minutes, but Merzlikins and the Blue Jackets were up for the challenge. One thing that the Blue Jackets have talked about when it comes to holding third-period leads is extending them, and Wood’s goal proved crucial – and showed that theory held some water.

“(The goal) helps, especially after they get a power-play goal to make it 4-3,” Coyle said. “Lately things haven’t been going our way when that happens, right? You can say, ‘So, it’s gonna be the same old song and dance,’ but we just kept playing the right way. When you play the right way, usually things take care of itself.”

The Blue Jackets will have to show that they can consistently close games out going forward, but it sure felt good to get one under their belt and not have to answer the same questions going forward.

“It wasn’t just my goal,” Wood said. “I think it was us as a team. We knew what was at stake, and it was a great way to cap it off for a team win."