Blue Jackets shut out Swooning Bruins

Lost among the other big stories in the NHL this season has been the success of the long struggling Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Jackets, now in their 8^th NHL season, have had a very solid season behind goaltending phenom Steve Mason and are poised to make the playoffs for the first time in their history.  In particular, they’ve made the Nationwide Arena a very tough place for visiting teams to play and now hold a 21-10-2 record on their rink after upending the slumping Boston Bruins 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Mason earned his 9^th shutout of the season and the game’s ‘first star’ as he stopped 35 Bruins’ shots on net.  He was locked in an epic goaltending battle with his Boston counterpart and hard luck loser of this game, Tim Thomas, who held the Jackets scoreless during the first two periods and stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced.  Even the game winning goal, scored by Raffi Torres on the power play after nearly 47 minutes of scoreless hockey, has something of an ‘asterisk’ by it.  Immediately before the goal, Thomas was hit hard behind the net and damaged his facemask.  He was forced to borrow a mask from backup goalie Manny Fernandez for the rest of the game and he never got comfortable with it.  Thomas says that he’s far from the only goalie who hates using someone else’s equipment:

"You can ask any goalie. It's not fun to use anybody else's stuff when you're used to your own."

And though he didn’t make any excuses, it’s worth noting that Torres’ game winner came on the first shot Thomas faced after the change to Fernandez’s mask and on a weak shot that he typically handles with ease.  Torres remembered the goal as follows:

"I saw there was a lot of room coming in, so I was just fortunate to get a quick shot off. I think I caught him cheating a little bit [to the near post]."

Torres beat Thomas high to the stick side, after which the goalie slammed the puck hard against the rinkside glass in disgust.  It would be the only goal Thomas gave up, but clearly a costly one.  Columbus would add a second score in the final minute of the contest as Rick Nash scored into an empty Boston net after the Bruins had pulled Thomas for an extra attacker.  After the game Nash sounded pleased that he was still playing meaningful hockey games this late in the season:

"It's fun playing this time of the season when hockey means something," he said after stretching his goal streak to three games with a seeing-eye empty-netter that clinched the outcome. "We're not used to this. We're used to just playing for our fans right now. Right now there's a bigger picture and we're excited to be playing."

The Blue Jackets are currently in sixth place in the jam packed Western Conference, three points ahead of Edmonton and Nashville who are tied for the 7^th and 8^th playoff spots.  They’re 5 points behind the Chicago Blackhawks for 4^th place, which would give them the home ice advantage in their first round series.  They’ll host Pittsburgh on Thursday before traveling to Chicago for a big matchup against the Blackhawks on Friday.  They’ll return home for a game against one of the top teams in the league, the Detroit Red Wings, on Sunday. 

Boston has now lost 7 of their last 10 games, and now trails both San Jose and Detroit by a single point for the NHL’s best record.  Combined with New Jersey’s victory at home against Calgary, they also saw their lead in the Eastern Conference dwindle to six points over the Devils.  Boston catches a scheduling break, however, with their next two games at home against weak opposition hosting Ottawa on Thursday and the New York Islanders on Saturday.  They’ll play a team fighting for their playoff lives against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Mellon Arena on Sunday.