Columbus and Ottawa last met on December 1, 2023. The Blue Jackets won that match-up 4-2. Currently, both teams sit at the bottom of their respective divisions. Before this game, Ottawa’s record was 21-25-2 with 44 points, and the Blue Jackets sat just below them in the Eastern Division with a record of 16-25-10 with 42 points, putting them in last place.
1st Period
The Columbus Blue Jackets started the game fairly strong. They played an even game with the Ottawa Senators for about the first seven minutes. Around that time, Jacket’s forward Dimitri Voronkov would score the game’s first goal with assists from Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko, putting them in the lead 1-0. About a minute later the Ottawa Senators would get a powerplay opportunity when Jacket’s defencemen Erik Gudbranson would get called for a two-minute tripping penalty. During the powerplay, Blue Jacket’s netminder Daniil Tarasov would make a good save after the puck hit his left post, but he was then able to cover it up until the whistle. A few seconds later the Senators would get another chance for a shot on the net and this time their captain, Brady Tkachuk, would get the powerplay goal. The period would not get much better for the Blue Jackets after that.
Just under a minute after his first goal, Brady Tkachuk would pick off a pass from the Blue Jackets, take the puck to the net by himself, and score another goal making it 2-1 Ottawa Senators. The game would remain there for a few minutes until some penalties were assessed to both teams. Blue Jacket’s forward Mathieu Olivier would get penalized two minutes for cross-checking Jakob Chychrun. Chychrun would get two minutes for roughing as well as two minutes for taking an opponent’s helmet off. The second penalty of taking a player’s helmet off was served by Brady Tkachuk, giving the Blue Jackets a powerplay. Claude Giroux would score a short-handed goal for the Senators about 20 seconds into the Jacket’s powerplay, putting them up 3-1. Shortly after, Ottawa would land the puck in the back of the net once again, but this time, the Blue Jackets were able to successfully challenge for goaltender interference, and it was called a no-goal. Later in the period, both teams would get another powerplay chance, but neither would score.
2nd Period
The Blue Jackets dominated puck possession for the first five minutes of the 2nd period and looked like a fresh team compared to how they looked at the end of the 1st period. The domination came to an abrupt end around the five-minute mark. Ottawa forward Ridley Greig would make the game 4-1 with assists from Vladimir Tarasenko and Shane Pinto. About two minutes later, Blue Jacket’s defenceman Zach Werenski was called for tripping against Thomas Chabot after his stick got caught under Chabot’s skate. The Senators weren’t able to capitalize on the resulting powerplay. The penalty kill seemed to give the Blue Jackets some momentum. After the powerplay ended, Blue Jacket’s captain, Boone Jenner, scored a goal with assists from Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski. The momentum would continue two minutes later when Jacket’s forward Jack Roslovic landed his third goal of the season by deflecting the puck in off of a pass from Erik Gudbranson, Jake Bean would get the secondary assist.
A few minutes later, the momentum would slow as Werenski picked up another tripping penalty, this time against Mathieu Joseph. In the ensuing powerplay, Senator’s captain Brady Tkachuk would complete his hat trick after taking advantage of a Columbus injury to go up 5-3. Blue Jacket’s defenceman Ivan Provorov had been hit with a puck when he blocked a shot and was unable to get up off of the ice during the play. The game would heat up in the final minute when Jacket’s Dimitri Voronkov would get into a scuffle with Senators Ridly Greig and Travis Hamonic. The incident happened after Boone Jenner laid a hit on Greig, who then pushed Jenner into the Blue Jackets bench. Voronkov was coming on the ice for a line change and took exception to the push on the Columbus captain and let Greig know his displeasure. Voronkov and Greig would each get roughing penalties, while Hamonic would pick up a cross-checking penalty. The powerplay would continue for the start of the 3rd period.
3rd Period
The Ottawa Senators started the 3rd period, maintaining the majority of puck possession. Their possession time would be short-lived, though, as a two-minute penalty was given to Shane Pinto for hooking around two minutes into the period. The Senators were able to kill the penalty once again. A short while after the end of that penalty, Jacket’s Erik Gudbranson would also get a two-minute hooking penalty. The Blue Jackets would kill the penalty off and neither team would be assessed any more penalties the rest of the night. Both teams fought for possession and played fairly evenly for the rest of the period. The Senator’s sixth and final goal would happen with just 8 seconds left in the game. The Blue Jackets had pulled their goalie to put an extra skater on the ice, and Ottawa’s Erik Brannstrom was able to secure an empty net goal. The final score was 6-3, with the Senators getting the win.
The Columbus Blue Jackets next play on February 20 at 10:30 PM EST at the San Jose Sharks.
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