COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Josh Anderson scored the deciding goal in the eighth round of the shootout, lifting the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.
Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped Jared McCann’s attempt to secure the win for the Blue Jackets, who also got goals from Artemi Panarin and Jack Johnson in the tiebreaker. Aleksander Barkov, who tied the score with 1:34 left in the third period, and Mike Matheson scored in the shootout for Florida.
Nick Foligno and rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois scored power-play goals for Columbus — just the second time this season the NHL’s worst man-advantage unit has come through twice, and both against Florida. Bobrovsky, who took an errant stick under his chin in the final period, had 42 saves through overtime to help the Blue Jackets win for just the fourth time in 11 games (4-6-1).
Jonathan Huberdeau also scored for the Panthers and James Reimer stopped 46 shots. Florida has lost three straight after a five-game winning streak to close December.
Reimer was clutch in the third period, keeping his team within one goal while making several tough saves in the opening few minutes and later turning aside a breakaway by Dubois.
With the Panthers trailing late in regulation and the teams skating 4-on-4, the puck deflected off the skate of Foligno to Barkov, who slammed it past Bobrovksy for his 13th to even the score.
Foligno opened the scoring at 9:47 of the first period, wristing a rebound from the slot over Reimer’s glove for his first in 11 games.
Huberdeau tied it just 31 seconds into the second period with his 15th, a redirection near the crease on pass from Barkov. Huberdeau has scored six times in his last seven games.
Late in the second period, Jones zipped a pass from the right side that Dubois tapped in for his ninth on a bang-bang play.
NOTES: Columbus is still without injured forwards Brandon Dubinsky, Cam Atkinson and Alexander Wennberg. … Florida RW Radim Vrbata missed his fifth consecutive game because of an illness. …The Blue Jackets are 17-4-3 when scoring first. … The Panthers, completing the first half of their 82-game schedule, had gone seven contests without a power-play goal.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: At Toronto on Monday night.
Panthers: At St. Louis on Tuesday night.
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