Winning Thoughts: Greaves shines as Jackets rally past Sabres

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

BLUE JACKETS 3, SABRES 2

1. Jet Greaves comes from Cleveland in the afternoon, stops 39 of 41 shots at night.

In a game where the Blue Jackets could not lose in regulation or their playoff hopes were gone, Greaves saved the day.

The goaltender earned the win last night for the Cleveland Monsters with a 4-3 victory over Grand Rapids, and after news broke this morning that Elvis Merzlikins would not be available against the Sabres, Greaves drove straight to Columbus.

“Got here as soon as I could,” Greaves said. “Once you're in the game, you kind of settle in and you're just about competing and trying to win hockey games. It was fun to be out there.”

The highlight of the 24-year-old goaltender's play was an 18-save second period that kept the Blue Jackets within one at 2-1 going into the final frame.

“It was 10-2 in chances in the second period, and he held us in a position where we were able to get to the third and sort some things out in between, and we got to our game,” head coach Dean Evason said.

Greaves, who seems to impress each time he is called upon by the organization, was applauded by his teammates after he posted a season high in saves.

“It's definitely tough. I mean, I know he played last night and made the drive up here,” James van Riemsdyk said. “He's really made a strong showing for himself, and he's been really steady back there for us. It was impressive.”

Greaves now has a 3-2-2 record this season with a .914 save percentage and 2.71 goals-against average.

2. van Riemsdyk’s goal with 8.1 seconds left in the first period sparked a three-goal comeback.

The Blue Jackets went down 2-0 in the first period, not the start they were looking for as a regulation loss would have eliminated them from playoff contention.

However, van Riemsdyk’s 15th goal of the campaign helped give them some energy going into the first intermission, as he corralled a long breakout pass from Kent Johnson and scored on a breakaway to give the Jackets momentum going forward.

“Getting one late in a period like that, I don’t think we're executing as well as we could have been for a good portion of the game, but that kind of kept it within striking distance,” van Riemsdyk said. “We've shown we’re a team that will keep playing until the very end, and we were able to do what we needed to do tonight to stay alive.”

Going into the third down 2-1 set up for the Blue Jackets to continue their desperate style of hockey, which is what Evason wants to see from his team the rest of the way.

“We have to be desperate, right?” Evason said. “We played well enough and hard enough here tonight to get two points. We need to continue to do that in the last four games.”

van Riemsdyk’s goal was backed by Zach Aston-Resse’s second in the past four games early in the third period, and then the comeback was completed by Jenner’s game-winning goal on the power play.

3. The Blue Jackets battled through the game and especially the third period down important defensemen.

Jake Christiansen played just four minutes of hockey before heading down the tunnel with an upper-body injury in the first period, and he did not return. That forced the Blue Jackets to play with five defensemen for much of the game – until Zach Werenski headed down the tunnel in the third period with an apparent hand injury.

The series of unfortunate events was capped off by Denton Mateychuk earning a two-minute minor for delay of game, leaving the Blue Jackets to kill a crucial penalty with 7:23 left in a 3-2 hockey game with just three defensemen.

The lack of bodies led to a buy-in from all players on the ice in front of the aforementioned Greaves.

“It's so tough for those guys when they get down to five or four or three or whatever it is," the goalie said. "They were battling all night, laying their body on the line and just playing really hard, all the defense and the forwards helping them out too. It was great to see everyone definitely bought in tonight.”

Werenski returned to the ice after missing about eight minutes of action, helping continue to keep the Sabres at bay. The play of the few defensemen on the ice in what could be argued as the most critical part of the game is even more impressive considering the Sabres came into this game firing on all cylinders in the offensive zone. They had recorded 43 goals in their previous nine games while going 8-1-0.

“The defense did their job for sure in that situation,” Evason said of having to deal with the injuries. “They also need help from at least one of the forwards to help and to back them up and make sure that we're secure back there. And our forwards did that. They reloaded extremely hard. They're in position to protect the D that might be a little bit tired. So I thought the entire group did a really good job of managing that situation.”