JACKETS SHOCK PANTHERS WITH LATE GAME SCORING BARRAGE

The Columbus Blue Jackets continued their solid run toward the playoffs on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers, but they had to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat to do it.  After being stymied by Panthers’ goalie Tomas Vokun for 57 minutes, the Jackets’ Raffi Torres stunned the Florida fans by beating him twice in just over a minute to turn what looked like a 1-0 Florida victory into a 3-1 Columbus triumph.  The win was the Jackets’ seventh in ten games as they moved within three points of Vancouver for 5^th place in the NHL Western Conference.

With both teams’ goaltenders playing well and the defensemen limiting shots on both ends of the ice it looked to be a closely contested goaltending struggle.  It was, at least for most of the game and as the third period ticked away it appeared that Rostislav Olesz’s goal at 15:39 of the first period from Nick Tarnasky and Brett McLean would be the difference. 

After mounting a sustained barrage of shots in the third period, the Jackets finally struck paydirt when Raffi Torres scored with 2:46 remaining to tie the game at 1-1 and spoil Vokun’s bid for his seventh shutout of the season.  Kristian Huselius and Kris Russell assisted to Torres’ game tying goal as the Panthers’ home ice fans anticipated an overtime contest.  Torres, however, would shock everyone in the building by scoring a second goal just over a minute later assisted by Michael Peca.  The Jackets took a 2-1 lead with 1:33 remaining, and Antoine Vermette added an unassisted empty net goal in the closing seconds to produce the final 3-1 margin.

After the game, Torres noted that despite being stoned for Vokun for the first two periods neither he nor his teammates ever lost hope:

"I don't think at any point we thought the game was over. On the bench, we kept saying, 'It's going to come, it's going to come, it's going to come.”

Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock was obviously elated by the turnaround, and noted the importance of having multiple offensive contributors on a hockey team:

"Look, we've been leaning on the same guys game in and game out, and some other guys came through tonight. And I think that's what good teams do, you get new heroes. That's exactly what happened today."

Panthers’ coach  Pete DeBoer was clearly frustrated by the loss which undid an otherwise solid defensive effort from his team and sent them to their fifth defeat in six games:

"I really thought we did a lot of things well tonight, other than win. I don't have an answer. We're not putting up any white flags, there's a lot of hockey left."

Despite DeBoer’s suggestion to the contrary, the ‘answer’ was obvious—at least in this game.  Florida’s offense didn’t produce enough scoring opportunities and their defense failed to keep the puck out of their own end with the game on the line in the third period.  For the game, Columbus outshot Florida 37-23 with a lopsided 17-6 differential in the third period.  Even with a top notch goalie like Vokun between the pipes, this sort of disparity in offensive chances makes losses inevitable.