Korpisalo seizes the day, makes most of his first playoff start

In order to do something spectacular, you have to get the fundamentals right, too.

And Blue Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo did just that when he made the save of the game -- heck, the save of the playoffs so far -- Sunday night on Toronto star Auston Matthews.

A taut Game 1 of a five-game Stanley Cup Playoffs qualifying series was still 0-0 late in the second period when Matthews got away from the Blue Jackets defense and found himself open in the slot. A succession of turnovers -- first Dean Kukan took the puck away from the Toronto attackers, but then Zach Hyman got it back and slid it along the boards to William Nylander -- meant there were moving parts all over the place, and Matthews looked primed to take advantage.

You would expect him too, as the American standout had 47 goals on the season, third in the NHL. With Kukan still behind the net, Pierre-Luc Dubois there too and Ryan Murray unable to get his stick on Nylander's pass, Matthews was in a perfect one-timer spot and didn't miss Nylander's feed.

It was a bang-bang play, but between the bangs, Korpisalo did everything right. As Nylander let the pass go, Korpisalo turned his head to recognize the threat of Matthews. He started to push back off the post and toward the middle of the net as the shot was being unleashed.

Those fundamentals down, the spectacular took over. As the laser off Matthews' stick approached the net, Korpisalo tracked it, threw out his glove and snagged the puck out of the air, his momentum leaving him almost doing the splits as his left leg went out from under him at the point of full extension.

"That was just a reaction," Korpisalo said afterward. "I saw he was open in the middle just a split second before it, and I pushed over. It was a good shot, and I tried to get something in front (of it)."

What he got in front of it was his Vaughn catching glove, and by the time he stopped sliding out from his crease after making the save, Korpisalo had made it clear it was his night.

And his Blue Jackets team followed. It was a sterling postseason debut for Korpisalo, who made 28 saves in the 2-0 shutout victory, the first-ever shutout for a Blue Jackets goalie in a postseason game and just the 14th blanking ever for a goalie making his first postseason start.

"He played unbelievable tonight," defenseman David Savard said. "I think as a group, we played well in front of him. He made some key saves on Matthews there in the second. That was kind of the turning point for us. That was huge for our game, and we just started going from there and played better and better as the game went on."

While Blue Jackets fans weren't sure as of this morning whether it would be Korpisalo or Elvis Merzlikins in the Columbus net, the goalies knew. After the two goalies, who split the season in net and both served as the backbone of the team's winter turnaround at times, battled for the starting job throughout nearly three weeks of summer camp, Korpisalo said he was informed he'd be the Game 1 starter on Saturday.

After not allowing a goal while starting and playing half of the team's exhibition game Thursday vs. Boston, Korpisalo said he was ready to be the starter if the call came. On Sunday night against a Toronto team that placed third in the NHL in goals on the season, Korpisalo proved it.

"I felt pretty confident from the get-go today, and I think the boys played really good in front of me, battling for me to see the puck," he said. "That was awesome. That was fun to play."

It had to be especially satisfying for Korpisalo considering the entire season in some ways has been about proving people wrong. The biggest question about the Blue Jackets coming into the season was how the goaltending would perform, and the honest truth is that Korpisalo had never been tasked with being a No. 1 goalie outside of four seasons ago when injuries bumped him to the top spot for a nearly 30-game stretch.

As a result, the onus was on Korpisalo to show he could handle the starting job, something he did with a dominant run in November and December that made him an All-Star. The next big question to answer was how he'd perform in the playoffs, and one of the most popular players on the team for his laid-back personality and sense of humor passed his first test in that regard with flying colors.

"It's nothing we didn't expect," defenseman Seth Jones said. "Korpi is a competitor. He's a hell of a goalie and he made massive saves when we needed them. They had some chances when it was 0-0, three or four of them right in the slot. The save on Matthews was probably one of the ones of the night.

"We're extremely happy for him. He's come a long way. He's done his time behind (Sergei Bobrovsky) for years now, and it's finally his chance."