GAME 5 FINAL: Lightning 5, Blue Jackets 4 (OT)

Needing a win to stay alive, the Blue Jackets lost Game 5 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs series against Tampa Bay by a 5-4 score in overtime on Wednesday afternoon in Toronto. Tampa Bay wins the series 4-1 and advances to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Game in a Paragraph

It was not the start the Blue Jackets wanted as the Lightning led 2-0 seven minutes into the game, but Columbus battled back from there to score four straight goals. The Blue Jackets got one back before the end of the first then completely dominated the second period to take a 3-2 advantage after two. Oliver Bjorkstrand made it 4-2 before the Lightning tallied twice in the the last 10 minutes to take the game to overtime. There, Brayden Point scored 5:12 into OT to win the game.

CBJ Standouts

Quote of the Game

Seth Jones: "I think we played a lot better than a 4-1 series, but that's the way it goes."

Quick Recap

The Blue Jackets found themselves in a hole early despite an incredible early save from Joonas Korpisalo, who went right to left to stop Cedric Paquette on a 2-on-1 down low off a feed from Pat Maroon.

But the Lightning got two goals in the next two minutes to make it a 2-0 game. First, off a faceoff win, Erik Cernak's shot from the right point was deflected at the circles by Tyler Johnson and fluttered over the blocker of Korpisalo at 5:38. Then just 1:01 later, Blake Coleman made it 2-0 as the Lightning intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, Coleman came in along the right wing and beat Korpisalo with a shot from the circle that also snuck through the legs of Zach Werenski.

Riley Nash nearly drew one back near the midway point of the period as Foligno fed him in alone on an odd-man rush, but Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy reached out and used a poke check to knock the puck off Nash's stick just as he cut to what he thought was an open net.

But the Blue Jackets earned a power play in the sequence and took advantage as Foligno drew one back just one second after that man advantage ended. Alexander Wennberg held the puck behind the net, curled out and threw it off of Vasilevskiy's pads, and Foligno was in the right spot in front to quickly flip the puck past the Tampa goalie to at 11:51 to make it 2-1.

It stayed a one-goal game through the end of the first period, setting up a dominant Blue Jackets period that included two goals and a team playoff record 24 shots on goal in the frame, not to mention a total of 42 shot attempts.

The Blue Jackets tied the score at 2 at 9:35 of the period on the power play. Seth Jones made a nifty feed from the top of the zone to Stenlund in the left circle, and while the Swedish forward's first shot was blocked, he followed it up and slipped the puck through the legs of Vasilevskiy.

Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper called his timeout after the goal, but it did little to stem the tide as the Blue Jackets continued to push for a goal to take the lead. It finally came on the team's last shot on goal of the period, as Vladislav Gavrikov claimed the puck in the low left corner and threw it to the net. Vasilevskiy stopped a deflection there by Foligno, but the puck came back to Gavrikov, who slid it over to the slot for Wennberg to drive home with 15.8 seconds to go in the period.

After a pretty tame start to the third for both teams, Tampa Bay got its first true scoring chance in a while about six minutes in as defenseman Mikhail Sergachev fired from the right point and got his shot through traffic only to see it hit the post behind Korpisalo.

Columbus then made it a 4-2 game with 10:27 to play as Bjorkstrand got his team-best third goal of the series. Gavrikov stepped up to intercept a Tampa clearing attempt and knocked the puck to Bjorkstrand alone in the slot. The Maestro's pass to Dubois in front was saved by Vasilevskiy, but Bjorkstrand found the rebound it put it into the open cage.

Tampa got one back with 7:59 to go when Kevin Shattenkirk tallied to make it a 4-3 game. He found space alone at the top of the right circle and ripped a slap shot past Korpisalo far side to make it a one-goal game.

And then with the Lightning net empty, Tampa Bay was able to tie the score with 1:38 to play. Korpisalo had Nikita Kucherov's shot go off his glove before Brayden Point centered the puck into the crease, where it went off the skate of Anthony Cirelli and slid slowly across the goal line behind Korpisalo.

In overtime, Korpisalo had to be sharp early with back-to-back robberies of Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow in the first three minutes. But the Lightning got the winning goal from Point early in overtime as he took a pass from Kucherov in front and roofed a shot over Korpisalo.

Notable

Columbus outshot the Lightning for the second straight game, 41-25. ... Stenlund is the 14th different CBJ player to tally this postseason and the fifth to score his first-ever playoff goal, joining Eric Robinson, Liam Foudy, Gavrikov and Ryan Murray. … Gavrikov finished with two assists. … Cam Atkinson also had two assists to give himself 26 career postseason points (10-16-26 in 35 games), a CBJ franchise record. … The 24 shots on goal by the Blue Jackets in the second period is more than the team had in four of its first nine playoff games this year. … Columbus was 1-3 in overtime this postseason and is now 6-7 all-time in playoff OTs. ... Tampa Bay's power play finished scoreless (0-10) in the series after going not having any power-play chances in the game, while Columbus was 1-6 in Game 5. ... With three assists, Kucherov passed Martin St. Louis for the most points in Lightning playoff history with 70.

Roster Report

Columbus made no changes to the lineup from Game 4. Scratches were forwards Josh Anderson (unfit to play), Emil Bemstrom, Nathan Gerbe, Stefan Matteau and Devin Shore as well as defensemen Gabriel Carlsson, Adam Clendening, Scott Harrington, Markus Nutivaara and Andrew Peeke. In addition, goaltender Elvis Merzlikins was unfit to play and Veini Vehvilainen was scratched.

Up Next

The Blue Jackets season ends in the round of 16 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.