Postgame Analysis: Blue Jackets learn from mistakes to close out Game 5

It wasn't going to happen again.

For all the things that could have happened in Sunday night's Game 5 between the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs -- and this series had just about everything, even if it was a best-of-five and not a best-of-seven -- the one thing Columbus was not going to allow to happen was another late-game collapse.

Fool them once, shame on them. But fooling them twice wasn't in the cards.

As the Blue Jackets went about closing out a lead late Sunday on the way to a deciding 3-0 victory, they weren't going to relive the same script from the disastrous Game 4 situation that saw Columbus lose a three-goal lead in the final four minutes.

"I think we went through that before the game, little adjustments, stay calmed and poised," Gus Nyquist said after the win that sent Columbus to the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a rematch series against Tampa Bay. "We've been in that situation so many times this season where we've solved it the majority of the time. It's no different. Everyone just gathered themselves and got the job done."

This time, it wasn't a three-goal lead, but first a one-goal lead and then a two-goal lead. Columbus led 1-0 after 40 minutes thanks to Zach Werenski's goal 6:29 into the game, and that advantage held up through two periods despite a few close calls and a dominant showing by the Maple Leafs' All-Star line of Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner and John Tavares.

And the Maple Leafs came out flying though the first eight minutes of the third period, putting Columbus on its heels. If you were a Columbus fan, it wasn't hard to imagine disaster yet again, as could a 20-minute fence around Joonas Korpisalo with a one-goal lead really get the job done?

But as Columbus absorbed Toronto's best shot, the tide started to turn as the game neared the midway point of the third, and then lightning struck. Liam Foudy's individual effort goal - a tally he deserved after being one of the Blue Jackets' best and most poised forwards the entire series - made it 2-0 with 8:20 to go.

How would Columbus handle a similar late-game lead to the one it had coughed up the game before? As it turns out, and as Nyquist said, practice makes perfect.

Having made a few adjustments, Columbus kept its forecheck going and didn't let the Maple Leafs stack chances on one another or create chaos in front of Korpisalo. Finally, after several flirtations with the empty net, Nick Foligno tucked one home to eliminate a team that boasted some of the best offensive talent in the league all season long.

Much of the discussion before the game was around how well the Blue Jackets could possibly respond from the Game 4 loss, but the mental side of the game was what Columbus focused on after the setback.

"We immediately discussed that it's a great opportunity," head coach John Tortorella said. "I think the mental part of the game is the most important part for a team right now, not the X's and O's. It's something we are always teaching, always talking about. The group is always talking about it. This was a good test for us.

"It was a tough night after the game, after Game 4 for everybody. But we got together, talked about it and just talked about the great opportunity that we have in front of us here to step up and see if we can get this figured out in an adverse situation."

Staying the Course

While it was easy to focus on the fact Columbus coughed up a 3-0 lead in the last four minutes to see Game 4 turn into an overtime loss, Tortorella had a different view going into the deciding contest.

In his eyes, the Blue Jackets played a solid Game 4, only to see a few mistakes in a compressed timeline undo what had been a winning performance. So while the world at large wondered how Columbus could possibly bounce back, Tortorella preached simply sticking with the type of effort that made Toronto's late rally necessary.

"You gotta remember, in Game 4, we played a good hockey game," Tortorella said. "I think the third period prior to a little bit of a meltdown there, I think we held them to two scoring chances. We were confident in the way we were playing. We didn't want (the Game 4 loss) to happen. (Crap) happens, I guess. But right from the get-go, as we started preparing for this game, we knew how we were playing and we just wanted to try to get back to our game as quickly as possible as we started Game 5."

Columbus did just that, taking a crucial 1-0 lead early and keeping Toronto to just 14 shot attempts in the first period. In the third period, per Natural Stat Trick, Toronto had just one high-danger chance at 5-on-5. The Maple Leafs had to chase the game from the beginning and never quite caught up with it.

A star is born

It was impossible to watch Game 5 and not be impressed with the play of Foudy.

Columbus made no bones about the fact it wanted the 20-year-old, the team's first-round draft pick in 2018, in the lineup for the postseason when summer training camp began. Of course, he had to hold up his end of the bargain, but it was obvious that if all went well, he'd be part of the forward group for the postseason.

He did just that, and it's hard to imagine where Columbus would be without him. While much of the focus before the postseason was on players who came back from injury, getting Foudy as a full-time player after he spent most of the season with London of the OHL was just as key.

His third-period goal -- a sharp angle shot that snuck through Frederik Andersen, after Foudy displayed an uncommon amount of poise with the puck on his stuck -- was the clincher for Columbus, and it was due. Foudy spent most of the game on a line with Riley Nash and Oliver Bjorkstrand, but it was so rampant he also played top-line minutes with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alexandre Texier.

Add it all up and Columbus had 71.50 percent of expected goals, a measure of shot quality, when he was on the ice. In a postseason elimination game for someone who had just two regular-season games under his belt before the series started, it was a virtuoso performance.

"The more games that come to me, I feel a lot more natural out there," he said. "I felt really good out there tonight."

Given his youth and obvious skill, it's not hard to imagine just how much more growth Foudy has left in him, and that's a good sign for the franchise going forward.