COLUMBUS, Ohio—The Columbus Blue Jackets were supposed to fold. They always had before when playing the Colorado Avalanche.
Instead, four goals in a 10-minute span of the third period, capped by Dan Fritsche’s backhander with 4:05 left, gave the Blue Jackets a rare comeback win over their nemesis on Wednesday night.
“We’ve got to play off the momentum we had in the third,” said Rick Nash, who upped his goal tally to 18 with two goals. “Our fans were into it, they were loud. If we can play three periods that way, we could be a pretty good team.”
They never have been against Colorado, that’s for sure.
Colorado, 10-0-0 when leading after two periods before Wednesday, led 3-1 heading into the third period. The Avalanche also had history on their side, carrying a 22-1-1-1 record in 25 meetings with the Blue Jackets—the most lopsided series in the NHL.
The Blue Jackets pulled even on Nash’s second goal of the night and another by recent minor league recall Joakim Lindstrom with a man advantage midway through the period.
“We just did a ton of good things and played hard—played the way you should when you want to win games,” said Kris Beech, who had a career-high three assists.
Then in little more than a minute the teams combined for three goals.
Columbus’ Nikolai Zherdev scored on a low shot from the slot with 5:16 left for a 4-3 lead, but Colorado’s Scott Hannan countered off a rebound with 4:35 remaining.
Just 30 seconds later, with the crowd roaring on every play, Jason Chimera’s shot was stopped by Colorado goalie Peter Budaj, but Fritsche cleaned up on a backhander.
“We were putting all the pressure on them,” Fritsche said. “We just got the puck to the net. It was laying in front of me and I picked it up with my backhand and I had an empty net.”
It was a rare comeback for a Columbus team that has seldom even stayed close in games with Colorado. The average score in games in the series is 4-1, favoring the Avalanche.
“That’s one we let slip away,” Avalanche defenseman John-Michael Liles said.
Curtis Glencross added a career-high two assists for Columbus.
Hannan and Peter Stastny each had a goal and an assist for Colorado, and Ryan Smyth added three assists. Jeff Finger and Wojtek Wolski also scored for the Avalanche.
Fredrik Norrena came in to replace Leclaire in goal heading into the third period. He gave up the one goal on 11 shots. Budaj faced 31 shots.
“We got reckless and things started to turn our way,” Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. “It’s that we played for each other in the third period.”
Notes:@ The Avalanche were making a brief one-game road trip before heading back home for games against Philadelphia and St. Louis on Friday and Sunday. … The Blue Jackets were playing the second of a five-game home stand and play 11 of 14 games in December at home. … The four third-period goals by the Blue Jackets are the most in any period this season and one shy of the franchise record.
