The Columbus Blue Jackets last met the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier this season on November 2, 2023. The Jackets would win that meeting 4-2 with a come-from-behind victory. With an ever-growing rivalry between these two teams, it seems as if each time they play each other, the games get more intense. This game had a sell-out crowd of 18,876, setting this season’s highest attendance for the Blue Jackets so far.
1st Period
After a long All-Star break, the Columbus Blue Jackets played their first game since January 30th when they shut out the St. Louis Blues 1-0. Elvis Merzlikins would be back in the net as the Blue Jackets would take home ice. The Jackets started the game fast and were able to dominate possession for the first part of the 1st period. There was a flurry of chances for the Blue Jackets, but the Tampa Bay Lightning’s netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was able to turn away all attempts. The game turned a little physical when Jacket’s Ivan Provorov laid a big hit on Tampa Bay’s Darren Raddysh. At 13:32, Jacket’s forward, Kent Johnson, was called for a double major penalty for a high stick. This led to a power play goal for the Lightning from Nicholas Paul to make it 1-0. This would be the only goal for the first period.
2nd Period
The second period started with a Tampa Bay goal only 49 seconds into the period. The Lightning’s Anthony Cirelli would get a breakaway and get an open shot on the net that he would capitalize on to make the score 2-0. The Blue Jackets remained physical throughout the period but seemed to have problems keeping the puck in their possession. The Jackets would get a few more chances on goal but were unable to land one in the net. At 5:22, Tampa Bay’s Erik Cernak would get called for a high stick, giving the Blue Jackets their first powerplay of the game. The Lightning would kill the penalty off, giving up very few shots on the net. Ten minutes later, the Blue Jackets would get an extremely close shot on the net that got most of the arena on their feet, but ultimately, the puck could not cross the goal line. Towards the end of the period, things started to heat up and get physical around Tampa Bay. Blue Jacket’s Damon Severson would get into a fight with Tampa Bay’s Darren Raddysh with only 10 seconds left in the period. Severson would get two minutes for crosschecking and 5 minutes for fighting, while Raddysh would be assessed five minutes for fighting as well. The period would end 2-0 with the Lightning leading. Jacket’s Yegor Chinakhov would not return to the game after the period, citing an upper-body injury.
3rd Period
The third period would start much the same as the second period. Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos would score a goal only 23 seconds into the period to put the Lightning up 3-0. Shortly after, Tampa defenceman Victor Hedman would be assessed a two-minute penalty for interference. The Blue Jackets would fail to capitalize on their second powerplay chance of the night. With 8:34 to go in the game, another fight would break out, this time between Jacket’s Ivan Provorov and Tampa’s Michael Eyssimont. Provorov would get assessed for two minutes for crosschecking and two minutes for roughing. Eyssimont would be assessed a four-minute double-minor for roughing. Shortly after, both would be out of the penalty box, though, after a goal from Blue Jacket’s captain Boone Jenner. Not long after that, Tampa Bay would be right back in the box with a two-minute slashing penalty against Tyler Motte, giving the Blue Jackets their third powerplay of the game. The Jackets would go on to capitalize on the powerplay with another goal from Boone Jenner to put the game within one goal. Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel would score an empty-net goal with under a minute to go to finish the game 4-2.
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