In what may be the biggest win in franchise history, the Columbus Blue Jackets battled back from an early deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime Wednesday night, evening the overall series at 2-2.
For the fourth time in four games, the final score ended at 4-3. Just like in each of the previous games of the series with Pittsburgh, the team that trailed 3-1 wound up winning the game.
Coming off a third period collapse in game three, the Blue Jackets looked to reestablish themselves from the start. However, game four again had Columbus on the wrong side of the momentum early on as they fell behind 3-0 in the first half of period one. The Jackets eventually got on the scoreboard at 16:39 when Boone Jenner was credited for a score off a tip of a Mark Letestu shot, bringing the score to 3-1.
Late in the second period, the Blue Jackets had a huge opportunity when penalties gave them a five-on-three situation. Ryan Johansen wasted no time capitalizing on the two-man advantage, putting the second goal on the board for the Jackets to bring the score to 3-2. Columbus outshot Pittsburgh 18-6 in the second period.
In the third period, Columbus continued firing shots at Marc-Andre Fleury, but couldn’t find the net. Consequently, with time running out on the Blue Jackets hopes, they pulled Sergei Bobrovsky from goal to mount one final push. With just twenty-four seconds remaining in the game, Brandon Dubinsky scored the tying goal to send it to overtime.
Then, just 2:49 into overtime, from just inside the blue line, Nick Foligno put the puck past Fleury for the first home playoff win in franchise history.
The Blue Jackets outshot the Penguins 46-25 overall.
The series goes back to Pittsburgh for game five on Saturday night, before returning to Columbus on Monday, April 28th for game six.
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