William Karlsson scored a much-needed goal early in the third period Tuesday night, but his biggest contribution to the Blue Jackets’ life-preserving win over Pittsburgh started well before the final frame.
Karlsson centered a line — with scrappy Matt Calvert on his left and locomotive Josh Anderson to his right — that pulled the plug on Sidney Crosby and the Penguins’ top line, allowing the Blue Jackets to survive a wild affair 5-4 before a sold out crowd of 19,093 at Nationwide Arena.
The Blue Jackets are still on the brink of elimination, but the series — led by Pittsburgh 3-1 — heads back to the Steel City for Game 5 on Thursday.
“We have nothing to lose,” Blue Jackets right wing Cam Atkinson said. “We’re still down. We’re still crawling back into this. But it’s huge for us to get momentum. A lot of guys contributed, so feel good about this, get ready to work (today) and we’ll head to Pitt. Just play our game and we’ll have success.”
Karlsson, Boone Jenner and Markus Nutivaara each had a goal and an assist, while Jack Johnson and Anderson each had a goal and Brandon Saad had two assists.
The Blue Jackets put veteran Kyle Quincey and the rookie Nutivaara in the lineup for the first time and played their most controlled defensive game yet.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has struggled mightily in this series, still showed signs of shakiness. But he also made some huge stops at critical times, finishing with 27 saves.
“It’s a game at a time now, really, and it’s all we can do,” Karlsson said. “We said we wanted to go back to Pittsburgh. We held serve here. We had to win.”
Other than the Blue Jackets’ winning, the game followed a similar script to the rest of the series. The Jackets dominated the first period, taking a 2-0 lead, and held on for dear life in the second, carrying a 3-2 lead into the second inter
Karlsson, getting his first taste of the postseason in this series, made it 4-2 only 27 seconds into the third, when he skated behind the Pittsburgh net and swatted the puck off goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and into the cage.
The Penguins pulled to 4-3 only 1:43 later, but the Blue Jackets pushed the lead to 5-3 when Jenner scored his first of the playoffs at 5:37.
Karlsson, Calvert and Anderson combined for two goals, two assists and a plus-8 rating. Karlsson also won 12 faceoffs (on 22 attempts), which has been a struggle thus far in his NHL career.
Meanwhile, Crosby’s line, which has unnerved the Blue Jackets with its ability to turn any little hiccup into an odd-man chance, was mostly silenced.
Crosby had a minus-2 rating with no points and no shots on goal. Right wing Conor Sheary was minus-3 and Jake Guentzel, despite scoring a late goal, was minus-2.
“You really can’t take a shift off against that line,” Karlsson said. “They’re really skilled and really good. You really have to have your head on a swivel all the time and be sharp.”
