A Trip Down Memory Lane: Columbus Stuns in Round One of the 2019 NHL Playoffs
Photo credit: NHL.com
Coming off of a 128-point regular season and a Presidents’ Trophy win, the Tampa Bay Lightning were the heavy favorites to win the 2019 Stanley Cup. Round one did not seem to pose much of a challenge for the team, as first round opponent Columbus Blue Jackets barely snuck into the postseason by two points. The Lightning, though, were quickly proven that Columbus would put up a bigger fight than originally expected.
Game One
As Tampa Bay had earned home-ice advantage, the Blue Jackets were traveling south for games one and two. As expected, the Lightning started out hot with three unanswered goals in the first period by Alex Killorn, Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde. Despite this strong start, those three were the only goals that would come from Tampa Bay in game one. Captain Nick Foligno kicked off the scoring for Columbus a little less than halfway through the second period. Going into the third, Tampa was up 3-1. David Savard and Josh Anderson scored four minutes apart to tie the game with eight minutes to go. Power play quarterback and star defenseman Seth Jones sent the puck straight past Andrei Vasilevsky for a 4-3 Columbus win.
Chris O’Meara / AP
Game Two
Once again, home sweet home for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The unconventional and arguably embarrassing loss to the last Eastern Conference seed in game one was long gone, and it was time for revenge. To Tampa Bay’s dismay, Columbus came firing on all cylinders in game two. Cam Atkinson and Zach Werenski scored five minutes apart to give their team a 2-0 lead over the Lightning. With five minutes left in the first period, Werenski and Brayden Point dropped their gloves and earned themselves each a five-minute major-penalty.
Aside from a power play goal from Matt Duchene less than two minutes into the second period, there wasn’t too much action in those 20 minutes. The third period, however, was a different story. Mikhail Sergachev got on the board for Tampa Bay and cut the Blue Jackets lead to two, instead of three. Riley Nash and Artemi Panarin fired back for Columbus just minutes later to make the final score 5-1. With less than five minutes to go, there were six different penalties called. Josh Anderson and Victor Hedman got matching ten minute misconducts, Anderson was also called for roughing, and Nikita Kucherov was given two minutes for tripping, five for boarding, and ten for game misconduct. Kucherov’s late game hit on Columbus’ Markus Nutivaara earned him a suspension for game three.
Game Three
To many, it seemed if Tampa Bay could not turn it around in game three, then the series would be over. Traveling back to Ohio, the Blue Jackets now had home-ice advantage for the next two matchups. Unlike the first couple of games, there was no scoring in this first period. The second period, once again, told a similar story. Duchene scored less than two minutes into the period and Oliver Bjorkstrand on the power play six minutes later. Ondřej Palát made it a competition in the third with a goal not even five minutes in. However, that was not enough to secure a win. Atkinson topped it off with an empty net goal for Columbus with one minute remaining. Game three was quite tame considering the circumstances the Lightning were facing, but the Blue Jackets appeared to have figured them out.
Game Four
This was it. This was do or die for the Tampa Bay Lightning. By even winning one game, the Columbus Blue Jackets had already shocked the hockey world. Going into the series, not even Blue Jackets fans truly believed that their team could play well enough for four wins. Game four had arrived and the Columbus Blue Jackets were 60 minutes away from sweeping the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Alexandre Texier and Pierre-Luc Dubois started it off for Columbus with back-to-back goals within one minute of each other. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos cut the lead in half with a goal in the first period as well. The second period continued to have a back-and-forth pace. Jones scored once again for Columbus, then two Tampa goals from Cedric Paquette and Point. The second was finished off with a goal from Bjorkstrand to make the score heading into the third 4-3, in Columbus’ favor. All Tampa Bay needed was ideally two goals, but at least one to send the game into overtime. For one last time, the Lightning were no match for the Blue Jackets. There was no scoring until the final two minutes of the game, when Panarin, Texier, and Duchene scored empty-netters seconds apart from each other.
Columbus not only completed a sweep in the first round of the 2019 NHL playoffs, but stunned the entire hockey world. In fact, the majority of predictions had the Lightning sweeping the Blue Jackets before the series began. Columbus defeated the best team in the league with ease and showed the only thing that matters is that a team clinches a playoff spot, not what seed or how the team got there. While the Blue Jackets did not go on to win the Stanley Cup that year, this series was, without a doubt, one of the best and most memorable.
