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 Center Brian Boyle scored a short-handed goal in the third period
and the injury-plagued Lightning (15-13-3) held off the Blue Jackets
in the final minutes of a battle between goaltenders.
Boyle took a pass from center Alex Killorn, who wrestled the puck
away from Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg, and sent a bullet
of a slap shot past the glove of Columbus rookie goalie Joonas
Korpisalo at 6:13 for the winner. It was Boyle's eighth goal of the
season.
"Any time you get a short-handed goal, it's huge for momentum,"
Killorn said. "Then we killed the rest of their power play."
The Blue Jackets (11-18-3) came within inches of scoring the tying
goal with less than three minutes remaining when the puck got behind
Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop in a scramble in front of the net
and stopped on the goal line before center Vladislav Namestnikov
pushed it back underneath Bishop.
"It went through my stick," Bishop said. "I had the blade just where
I wanted it. I guess it snuck under my stick. I'd say 99 out of 100
times it would hit my stick. I don't know how it got through."
Bishop finished with 25 saves and withstood a final assault by the
Blue Jackets after they pulled Korpisalo.
"I thought we played really well," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
"I thought for 50 minutes of that game we controlled the pace of
play. I thought we earned that 2-1 lead.
"Even though it was short-handed, we were earning that goal all
night. It was a heck of a play by Killer."
Korpisalo was impressive in his NHL debut with 27 saves. The
21-year-old from Finland was recalled from Lake Erie of the American
Hockey League on Wednesday after goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
suffered a groin injury and was placed on injured reserve.
"He was a fish out of water, flopping all over the place making
saves," Columbus forward Nick Foligno said.
Korpisalo is playing his first full season in North America and was
5-4-2 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a. 928 save percentage
with two shutouts for Lake Erie. After goalie Curtis McElhinney
started the last two games for the Jackets, he was given the night
off.
"It was an amazing experience. I was dreaming about that since I was
a little kid," Korpisalo said.
Despite Karpisalo's efforts, the Blue Jackets weren't able to avoid
their fourth straight loss.
"I think we played pretty good," Korpisalo said. "We played good
defensively. I kind of got in the flow right away. The guys took
care of the rebounds. I felt pretty comfortable today."
Lightning center Jonathan Marchessault, a former Columbus prospect,
scored the first goal of the game in the second period and the Blue
Jackets tied it on a goal by center Brandon Dubinsky later in the
period.
Marchessault ended the scoreless duel at 11:11 of the second period
after a turnover by Wennberg resulted with the unassisted goal
against Korpisalo. Marchessault's point-blank slap shot was his
third goal of the season.
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Dubinsky produced the equalizer for the Blue Jackets at 16:46 of the
second period. Left winger Matt Calvert made a nifty backhanded
centering pass from behind the net directly to Dubinsky, who sent a
backhander past Bishop from in front of the net.
The game got off to a rough start for Tampa Bay, which lost rookie
forward Joel Vermin on his first shift when he suffered an
upper-body injury after being called up from the AHL earlier in the
day. The Lightning began the night with only 11 forwards.
Tampa Bay has struggled to score this season after leading the
league in goals last season on the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. It
came into Monday's game ranked 27th in the NHL, averaging 2.33 per
game.
"We're fighting hard to score goals here," Cooper said. "We only get
two, but it was enough to win tonight."
NOTES: The Lightning recalled RW Joel Vermin and C Yanni Gourde from
Syracuse of the American Hockey League. Tampa Bay also called up G
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who played for Syracuse on Friday and Saturday,
and reassigned G Kristers Gudlevskis. ... Injury-plagued Tampa Bay
was without C Tyler Johnson (undisclosed), LW Jonathan Drouin (lower
body), LW Ondrej Palat (lower body), C Cedric Paquette (upper body)
and RW Erik Condra (lower body). Drouin, Palat and Paquette are not
with the team during its three-game road trip, which continues
Tuesday night in Toronto. ... Lightning G Ben Bishop had given up
two or fewer goals in 13 of his past 15 games and his 1.96
goals-against average ranks second in the NHL. ... C Steven Stamkos,
the Lightning's leading scorer with 22 points, has not scored in
nine consecutive games. ... Columbus injuries include G Sergei
Bobrovsky (lower body), D Cody Goloubef (broken jaw), RW Rene
Bourque (upper body) and RW Markus Hannikainen (shoulder). ... Blue
Jackets G Curtis McElhinney sat out Monday, but is expected back in
the lineup Tuesday when Columbus plays in Dallas against the Stars.
McElhinney took over the primary goaltending duties from Bobrovsky,
who is expected to be out three weeks. ... Columbus' last four home
games had gone into overtime, with the Blue Jackets winning only
once.
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