Final Score: Lightning 5 – Blue Jackets 2
Game Summary
Happy Holidays. I hope everyone had/is having a good break.
The Jackets placed a great first period before completely unraveling in a dreadful second period, which ended up costing them. The Jackets took penalties and the Lightning were able to convert as they took this game 5-2.
The first period was very good. The Jackets outshot Tampa 15-9 and the game was tied 1-1. Rene Bourque got the goal, his first of the year, tipping a Boone Jenner shot. While he won’t get an assist Ryan Murray made a real nice play to make that goal happen. The puck was coming towards him off the boards; he faked like he was going to play the puck drawing the defender to him, allowing Boone to get the puck with a wide open shooting lane. A real heads up play by Murray; showing just how well he thinks the game.
The second period was a disaster. It started when the Jackets took three straight penalties in a span of three seconds. Dalton Prout went off for cross-checking, Gregory Campbell for a faceoff violation and then Jack Johnson for shooting the puck over the glass. Steven Stamkos scored twice on the powerplay, both on the five on three.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Scott Hartnell received a five minute major and a game misconduct for running into Ben Bishop behind the net. The call was terrible in my opinion. It was absolutely a penalty but a five and game was crazy. He bumped Bishop but it wasn’t a major collision by any means.
Hartnell charging major and game misconduct pic.twitter.com/FQJ1KqFWnG
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 27, 2015Bishop may have helped his case just a bit here. This is what he does very well. He is able to draw a ton of penalties and get his team to the power play. He's one of if not the best goalie in the league at drawing penalties. At the other end of the rink Joonas Korpisalo managed to finish two periods before being replaced by Curtis McEhlinney to start the third. I thought pulling Korpisalo was unfair to him. He let in four goals but three of them were high danger chances, two of which were on that five on three. The other goal was a medium danger chance also on the power play. Really hard to fault the goalie on any of those goals. Perhaps John Tortorella was trying to spark the team or maybe he was just resting Korpisalo for tomorrow.
Stat of the Night
Stats courtesy of HockeyStats.ca and War On Ice.
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