Play That Music! Jackets Stave Off Elimination With Gritty 5-4 Win Over Pittsburgh

How do you bounce back after losing a game that you had full control of two nights ago? You come back out and punch them in the mouth again. The Columbus Blue Jackets took the ice for Game 4 at Nationwide Arena, hoping to win and extend the series back to Pittsburgh for a Game 5.

Jack Johnson (11:46) and Josh Anderson (18:56) would take initiate the first goals of the night to give the Blue Jackets a 2-0 lead heading into the second. from each in the first. Johnson would start the scoring off with a shot from the blue line that ricocheted off the skate of Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby to get past Fleury. Anderson’s goal was set up by Kyle Quincey, who made his first game action of the series. Anderson took the pass from William Karlsson down the right side and worked to the crease to beat Fleury for the goal.

Markus Nutivaara put home a rebound at the 4:48 mark of the middle stanza to make it a 3-0 Blue Jackets lead. From there, the Penguins would start to rally.

Patric Hornqvist scored a power-play goal at the 6:43 mark to get the Penguins on the board and Ron Hainsey would follow with a goal at the 16:24 mark to create some worry amongst Jackets fans heading into the third.

The third period was an eventful one, as Columbus would need to score two more goals to hold on for the 5-4 win. Just twenty-three seconds into the third, William Karlsson would follow his own shot off the end board and put it in on the backhanded rebound attempt. Tom Kuhnhackl would put a goal in for Pittsburgh at the 2:10 mark when he would find the puck and an open net after Sergei Bobrovsky stretched out to save the puck on the previous shot attempt. Boone Jenner essentially iced the game when he poked home the puck after Brandon Saad shot the puck off of Fleury’s chest. The goal at the 5:37 mark would stand as the game-winner, as Pittsburgh could only muster one of the goals back on a Jake Guentzel short-handed goal at the 19:32 mark.

The Blue Jackets live to fight another day, as it’s on to Pittsburgh for Game 5.