Devils score two to drop Blue Jackets in divisional road game

After last night’s 6-3 win at home against the New Jersey Devils, the Columbus Blue Jackets could not complete the season sweep and fell 2-1 at Prudential Center.

Despite the Jackets’ slow start, including an early first period goal given up to Devils forward Reid Boucher, the Blue Jackets picked up the pace. Forward Jared Boll scored his first goal of the season thanks to a deflection on a hard shot from the point by defenseman Dalton Prout, who said he was happy for Boll.

“It was awesome,” Prout said to reporters after the game. “He’s a character guy for our team and means so much to us. He cares a lot about every teammate in there, and it’s nice to see him score that goal. I’ve gone a season without scoring a goal, so it’s nice for him to break his goose egg.”

Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella’s comments also echoed Prout’s related to Boll’s goal.

“He’s a good pro,” Tortorella said. “He’s at a year where he hasn’t been in the lineup a whole bunch but he has handled himself very well. You could see when he scored how the bench reacted. He’s an easy guy to like and he’s the guy to pull for.”

Though the Blue Jackets had tied it in the second period, the Devils came back and scored in rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo’s crease. Both Blue Jackets defensemen assumed Korpisalo would make the save, but Devils forward Devante Smith-Pelly poked the puck across the goal line.

Tortorella was disappointed in the play.

“We can’t have both of our defensemen leave the net on that [goal],” Tortorella said. “In the third period, in that type of situation, we can’t be anticipating that [the puck is] out. We have to make sure that it is out and that cost us.”

It was not only that goal that cost the Blue Jackets tonight–it was playing into the Devils’ shut-down, defensive style that prevented them from scoring more than one goal.

“The whole game, I don’t think either team gave the other team much,” Tortorella said. “They defended much better tonight and I don’t think we played badly. It wasn’t like momentum was going against us. We just didn’t score. We didn’t have a bunch of looks and we just didn’t get the second goal. It was one of those games where both teams were trying to find that second one, and we got too impatient and gave up that second goal.”

Prout said the same thing about the Devils’ playing style shutting down him and his teammates.

“That’s [the Devils’] M.O.—they’re good with the lead,” Prout said. “They play structured and patient, and they play a low-scoring game without a lot of scoring chances for either side. They stuck to their game plan and we just couldn’t find ways to score.”

As Prout said, neither team had many scoring chances. It was a tough first game back for Korpisalo, who made 20 saves on the 22 shots he faced. But, the Blue Jackets somehow managed to get 28 shots through to Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who made his NHL debut and became the first Devils goaltender to record a win in his first-ever NHL game since Martin Brodeur, who did the same back in 1992.

The Blue Jackets will look to solve the next team they will face in the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena.

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