Blue Jackets edge Maple Leafs for Game 1 victory
They did what they usually do in the first game of the playoffs played in the opponent’s arena.
Backed by Joonas Korpisalo’s 28-save shutout in his first career postseason game, the Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead in a best-of-5 series with a 2-0 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena. The shutout was the first in franchise history during the postseason and Korpisalo became just the 14th goalie in NHL history to earn a shutout in his playoff debut.
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“I felt pretty confident from the get go and I think the boys played really good in front of me, battling for me to see the puck,” said Korpisalo, who was informed Saturday that he would start Game 1. “That was awesome. That was fun to play.”
Cam Atkinson scored the winning goal at 1:05 of the third period, putting the Blue Jackets up 1-0, and Alexander Wennberg sealed the victory by scoring into an empty net with 18.2 seconds left to play.
The second game in the series will begin Tuesday afternoon (4 p.m.) at Scotiabank Arena, where all five games of the series will be played. Columbus will technically be the road team again inside a building devoid of fans.
Korpisalo made 11 saves in the first period, eight in the second and nine in the third, with a sprawling glove save late in the second period bringing his teammates on the bench to their feet. Toronto’s William Nylander set up star center Auston Matthews with an open one-timer in the slot, but Korpisalo pushed over to his left and snagged the puck with his glove to keep it 0-0.
“That was just a reaction,” Korpisalo said. “I saw he was open in the middle just a split second before it and I pushed over. Good shot and I tried to get something in front of it.”
The Jackets got a lift from it and nearly scored at the other end 1:39 later, when Oliver Bjorkstrand tried to beat Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen between the pads. Instead, Andersen made one of his 33 saves by getting his left pad on the puck.
That kept it deadlocked at 0 starting the third, until Atkinson finally got one under Andersen’s arm with his first shot of the game – sending the puck into the far side of the net.
The goal pushed Atkinson to the top of two all-time franchise playoff stats, moving him past former teammate Artemi Panarin for the lead in career postseason goals (eight) and points (20).
“I thought Cam played a good game,” coach John Tortorella said. “For a goal-scorer, a guy that has struggled a little bit as we’ve gone through (previous postseasons), hopefully that will loosen him up a little bit.”
Atkinson also added a secondary assist on Wennberg’s goal, taking a hit to get the puck into the neutral zone for Nick Foligno to set up Wennberg with a shot into the empty cage.
“The play I like about his game was the play he made on the empty-net goal,” Tortorella said. “He just gets run over, but he makes the play to get the puck out. That’s a really big play for us.”
It was the kind of selfless play the Jackets made all game and the kind they’ve made during playoff road openers for three straight years. Technically the road team to start this series, which is being played within a quarantine “bubble” in Toronto because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blue Jackets won their third straight road opener in an opening-round playoff series – dating back to winning the first two games on the road in both 2018 against Washington and last season against Tampa Bay.
“It’s just a matter of us playing as a group and we did a good job of trying to not give them too many odd-man rushes,” said defenseman David Savard, who led the Blue Jackets with five blocked shots. “We’ve just got to play as a team, and if we keep playing like this we’ll give ourselves a chance to win every night.”
Neither team scored in the first, but both teams had good chances.
Korpisalo and Andersen were sharp, with the Jackets’ net-minder making 11 saves and the Leafs’ goalie stopping eight. Andersen also got some help from the left post on a shot by Zach Werenski late in the period and needed to make a save with his blocker to deny a goal off a backhand by Pierre-Luc Dubois.
The Maple Leafs eventually established puck possession in offensive zone for long stretches, moving the puck expertly to force the Jackets into a chase for it in their own end of the ice. It nearly created a goal, too, but Korpisalo made sure that didn’t happen.
The second was more of the same, with the game remaining 0-0 despite the Jackets outshooting Toronto 14-8 in the period. The crossbar behind Andersen helped him out again, turning away a shot by Jones, and both goalies made their best saves in the waning minutes.
Korpisalo’s robbery against Matthews had people talking about it even following the game. It was the kind of save and overall performance that rewarded Tortorella for going with him as the Jackets Game 1 starter – a role that Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins competed for the past three weeks.
“He played unbelievable tonight,” Savard said of Korpisalo. “As a group, we played well in front of him and he made some key saves … I think on Matthews there in the second, which was kind of a turning point for us. That was huge for our game and we just got going from there.”
bhedger@dispatch.com
@BrianHedger
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