The Columbus Blue Jackets kept their Stanley Cup Playoff chances alive with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on April 12. Charlie Coyle scored twice for Columbus, which remains in contention for a postseason spot as the regular season nears its end.
This win is significant for the Blue Jackets, who have struggled recently but managed to secure only their second victory in nine games. The result puts them two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division and one point ahead of the New York Islanders. All three teams have two games remaining.
Head coach Rick Bowness said, “We had a great first period tonight and you give our veterans a lot of credit. They came through when we needed them the most. They did a fantastic job for us. Jet made the saves where he had to. That is probably one of the best games we’ve played all year, but that’s how we’ve got to play. We are solid defensively. We spent a lot of time in their zone, created a lot of scoring chances off the forecheck.”
Boone Jenner also contributed early with an opening goal and later commented on his team’s performance: “It definitely was probably our best 60 (minutes) since the last time we were here a couple of weeks ago,” Jenner said. “We needed to get back to it in order to get the result tonight. Throughout the whole lineup, special teams, everybody was chipping in. A huge team effort. We know what’s at stake, so a big effort for us and we’ve got to keep it going tomorrow.”
Montreal forward Jake Evans reflected on his team’s performance: “I felt like we were just chasing it right off the hop,” Evans said. “Slow start and then started to get some momentum and then kind of died out in the second and we were just playing catch up. Emotionally it’s been a lot of ups recently, but we can’t just sit on that. We have to keep going because we obviously want home ice and to play here more in the playoffs.”
Looking ahead, Columbus will host Boston before finishing its regular season against Washington as they continue their push for playoff qualification.
