NHL Game Summary - Chicago at Columbus
Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Jack Johnson scored the deciding goal in the ninth round of the shootout and Sergei Bobrovsky was stellar as the Columbus Blue Jackets ended a 13-game losing streak to the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-2 victory on Saturday.
The Blue Jackets seem to prefer playing more than the required 60 minutes as they went to their sixth straight beyond regulation (5-0-1).
Each goaltender was perfect through four rounds before former Blackhawk Jeremy Morin beat Corey Crawford with a quick wrister. Andrew Shaw kept Chicago alive, however, as he snapped a shot over Bobrovsky's glove.
Brandon Saad, the Blackhawks' eighth shooter, had Bobrovsky beaten, but his shot rang off the left post. Johnson followed by dragging Crawford out of position with a slick backhand-forehand move and wristed the shot into an open net to put Columbus ahead.
Bobrovsky stood tall and sealed the win by denying Bryan Bickell's shot from the slot.
The Blue Jackets defeated the Blackhawks for the first time since a 4-3 win on Feb. 18, 2011.
"You want to measure yourself against the best," Johnson said. "We haven't beaten these guys in awhile so that felt good."
Jack Skille and Kevin Connauton each scored in regulation and Bobrovsky turned aside 39 shots for the Blue Jackets, who have won eight of their last nine games.
Patrick Sharp and Ben Smith tallied for Chicago, which entered with wins in 10 of its last 11 games. Crawford made 17 stops in his return to the ice after missing eight games with an ankle injury.
"I thought we did everything, but win that game," Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said.
Columbus had 1:55 of power-play time to start the third. David Savard skated across the blue line and slipped a pass up to Connauton, who wristed a shot from the left circle for a 2-1 lead just as the man advantage expired.
At 8:49 of the third, Smith shuffled the puck past the goal line from the side of the net after Marcus Kruger fell into the crease skates first. The goal was initially waved off on the ice, but the call was overturned as video replay showed that Kruger did not kick the puck into the net.
In overtime, Bobrovsky turned aside three Chicago offerings and Crawford made two stops to send the game into the shootout.
After losing an edge and going hard into the end boards, Skille got up and raced to the front of the net, where he redirected Fedor Tyutin's blast from the left point for a 1-0 Columbus lead with 2:32 left in the first period.
Sharp's shot from the left circle eluded Bobrovsky as the Blackhawks tied the game 7:27 into the second.
The Blackhawks owned a 29-12 shot margin heading into the final stanza.