SvoNotes: Voracek's big night helps push Jackets to much-needed victory

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice on Saturday night as the Blue Jackets earned a crucial 4-3 win against New Jersey on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd in Nationwide Arena. Joonas Korpisalo may have made the save of the season while earning the win, and Boone Jenner and Yegor Chinakhov also added goals.
But make no mistake. This night belonged to Jakub Voracek.

The Blue Jackets forward was honored in a pregame ceremony for reaching 1,000 NHL games on Thursday night in the Garden State, with his family present and Voracek given gifts ranging from the traditional silver stick to a crystal from the NHL to a painting to a Rolex watch.
He was then feted throughout the evening, with vignettes on the Nationwide Arena video board featuring his closest friends in the game -- including the legendary Jaromir Jagr, a fellow native of Kladno in the Czech Republic -- telling stories about what has become a legendary personality.

In the end, though, it was clear there was more to this night than just celebrating the past. Voracek drew a penalty on the first shift of the game that led to a goal, saved a goal with a well-timed blocked shot early in the second, and turned in a pair of primary assists in the win that returned the Blue Jackets to the .500 mark.
When it was all said and done, the 32-year-old forward was as important to breaking a three-game losing streak as any player on the Jackets.
"I got into it right away," he said. "I had a two-minute shift right away off the get-go. I almost had a stroke there. Oh my God. That was a tough one after standing for so long. It was obviously an overwhelming night for me. It might not seem like that, but I really don't like the attention as much as people think. I am not myself like that.
"But it was cool, obviously. Ex-teammates talking and having the family on the ice, it was a big honor. A nice watch, a beautiful portrait. Everything was just a great experience."
The pregame celebration itself was a memorable moment, and one that is well deserved. Just 361 players have reached the 1,000-game milestone in NHL history, and only four of them have done so in union blue now. It's the kind of accomplishment that comes along only so many years, and Voracek deserved every bit of the pomp and circumstance given to the 2007 first-round draft pick of the team.
One of the running jokes of the night was about how much longer he might play, and as long as he keeps having an impact like he did in this game, it's not hard to imagine he'll be out there for a few more years.
After starting the game and drawing a holding the stick penalty on Damon Severson 42 seconds into the game, he stayed on the ice for the ensuing power play and set up the first goal, taking a cross-crease feed from Patrik Laine and sending it right back to Bjorkstrand in a slot for a quick shot past Mackenzie Blackwood that gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead 2:01 into the game.
The two hooked up again 5:00 into the third period for the game-winning goal, with Voracek firing a quick pass across the high slot to Bjorkstrand, who let go a laser of a one-timer that got past Blackwood's glove and gave Columbus a 4-3 lead it would bring home.

"That was awesome," Bjorkstrand said of the Voracek connection that led to the pair of goals. "With him, I feel like you just have to find that open space and he'll give you the puck, that's all. I have to try to find that space a little more often. He'll definitely pass it. It's fun to be a part of. In a game like that, you want to win it for him."
It's been one of the stats of the season, as throughout the year, Voracek has been near the top of the list in the NHL in primary assists. As a player who prides himself on setting up goals over scoring them, it has to be a point of pride for Voracek, and now with 20 first helpers he returned to a tie atop the league with Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri.
"Thrilled for him," head coach Brad Larsen said. "He ended up being a real big part of this game for us, two primary assists, makes some great plays for us. He's a passionate hockey player. He loves to play. You can see it. He hates losing. He's an important guy for us and happy to see him in this game, with the magnitude of the milestone, he was able to contribute and help for the win. It's great."

Save of the Year?

To just about everyone in the building, it looked like a goal.
Everyone, that is, but Korpisalo.
With the teams tied 3-3 and the Blue Jackets on the penalty kill in the final minute of the second period, the Devils won a faceoff and quickly worked the puck from right to left. Then, a pass from Jack Hughes across the royal road back to the right circle found Nico Hischier all alone for a one-timer.
Korpisalo really had no time to push off to go from his right to his left, simply throwing his left gloved hand into the air as Hishcier's shot flew in. And - with the puck already seemingly behind him - Korpisalo's glove at full extension somehow swallowed up the shot from Hischier.

Hischier looked at the sky as if he couldn't believe it. Nationwide Arena jumped to its feet, thinking the same.
"I mean, that save was ridiculous," defenseman Andrew Peeke said. "I was on the ice. I was right there. Seeing it that close was unbelievable. A save like that wins us the game. …
"It should be No. 1 on SportsCenter for sure."
There's little doubt it's been a tough season for Korpisalo, who went more than a month without a start from late November until last week as he fought off both a non-COVID illness and then a positive COVID test. Playing time was few and far between as he worked his way back to full health, and Korpisalo then was forced into the net Tuesday because of injuries to Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov even though in a perfect world he probably would have had more time to knock the rust off.
But he's improved each game as he's started three in a row for the first time all season, and on this night he made 27 saves. Korpisalo added another tremendous stop with the glove on Hughes in the final three minutes, going right to left again and smothering Hughes' backhand chance as the young star was left alone in front trying to tie the game.
"Thrilled for Korpi just because he's had a year," Larsen said. "He really has. A lot of crazy things have happened, and for him it felt like the last game he found his rhythm again, settled in. He has another solid game here tonight."

Special Teams Step Up

It's hard to believe, but for the first time in more than two months, the Blue Jackets had their entire No. 1 power-play unit on the ice.
First it was Laine who was out, as the Finnish sniper missed nearly two months with an oblique injury suffered Nov. 3 at Colorado. When he returned after the holiday break, first Bjorkstrand missed a pair of games because of COVID protocols, then Zach Werenski did the same before returning to the ice on this night.
So finally on Saturday night, the quintet of Werenski, Laine, Voracek, Bjorkstrand and Jenner was on the ice together for a game, and it made a difference. Just 2:01 into the game, Voracek's pass from the right-side to Bjorkstrand in front led to a slam dunk goal for The Maestro.

It was perhaps what the Blue Jackets expected with the top unit back together. When all five of those players were on the ice at the start of the season, the CBJ power play clicked at 25.0 percent and scored six times in nine games. In the time where there were stopgap solutions on the top unit, the power play had a success rate of 11.9 percent and tallied just seven times in 23 games.
"Z is obviously a really good player, so when he's out of the lineup, it's never a good thing," Bjorkstrand said. "Having him back is huge, and I think the five guys out there, we were moving the puck better, making plays, and that's why we got some good chances."
The power play finished 1-for-3 on the night, while the PK was perfect in three tries as well. One game after the Jackets were the ones who finished empty on the power play and gave up a crucial goal on the penalty kill, things were reversed in this one.
"That's the difference, right?" Larsen said. "First unit got one early, which was huge. They executed a real nice play. The penalty kill, they fought through it. They got through it there and Korpi made some big saves when he had to. It's the timing of the saves that are huge, and he did a really good job of making some timely saves to keep the penalty kill on trac. Ends up being the difference, and it's huge for us."

Stats and Facts

• Bjorkstrand became the third CBJ player to reach double digits in goals on the season, as he notched his 10th and 11th tallies to join Jenner and Alexandre Texier. He now has 14 career two-goal games but has never had a hat trick, and Bjorkstrand now has 10 goals in 16 career contests against the Devils.
• Jenner's goal that made it 2-0 in the first period actually deflected in off the skate of Hughes, but it still goes down as his team-leading 13th of the year. Jenner also led the Jackets with seven shots on goal and 10 shot attempts.
• Chinakhov's goal, a finish from the net front after a strong pass out from behind the goal line from Sean Kuraly, was the second of the Russian rookie's NHL career. It was his first point and goal since Nov. 15.
• Adam Boqvist had a pair of assists as well, giving him his third multipoint game of the year and a 6-7-13 line in his last 14 games. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Jackets had an edge of 21-7 in shot attempts at 5-on-5 with Boqvist on the ice.
• Interestingly, it was a good night for the Boqvist boys, as his brother Jesper also had an assist on Martin Studenic's second-period goal.
• Gustav Nyquist had an assist on Jenner's goal and has 3-3-6 in his last six games, while Eric Robinson also had a helper on Chinakhov's goal to give him 3-6-9 in the last 11 games.
• Andrew Peeke had a team-high and career-high eight hits.
• How much trust does Larsen have in rookie forward Cole Sillinger? Not only did the youngest player in the NHL skate 1:23 of penalty kill time, he was on the ice for the final 43 seconds as the Blue Jackets protected their one-goal lead.
• It was just the sixth time in the Blue Jackets' 16 games that they didn't trail in the game, and Columbus improved to 11-5-1 in Nationwide Arena. Columbus also won its sixth straight at home against the Devils.
• A season-high crowd of 18,680 was in the barn as well.
• New Jersey's leading scorer, Jesper Bratt, was one of two Devils placed into COVID protocols before the game. Five of the team's top 10 scorers (Bratt, Andreas Johnsson, Dougie Hamilton, Pavel Zacha and Yegor Sharangovich) did not play.