RESULT: Blue Jackets win 15th straight game over red-hot Minnesota Wild
DATE: December 31st, 2016
LOCATION: Xcel Energy Center
WHAT HAPPENED: The build-up to this game was unlike we've seen for a regular season affair.
Never in NHL history had two teams with win streaks of 10-plus games collided in the regular season...until New Year's Eve 2016. The Minnesota Wild had won 12 straight and the Blue Jackets, fresh off a road win over the Winnipeg Jets, had racked up a ridiculous 14 wins in a row and were gunning for history of their own in the process.
And while it was still just one of 82 on the schedule, both teams played this game like there was something more at stake. The Blue Jackets were the better team throughout, and they were all over Minnesota for long stretches of the game.
Columbus amassed a 3-0 lead in the second period, including two quick goals less than 20 seconds apart from Jack Johnson and Cam Atkinson (the latter's second of the game) before the Wild scored on the power play to get on the board.
Seth Jones answered for the Blue Jackets to make it 4-1 late in the second period, but a Jason Zucker goal on the first shift of the third period awakened the Wild's home crowd.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, that was the last of its offense. Sergei Bobrovsky slammed the door the rest of the way, locking up a 15th straight win and keeping the Blue Jackets on course to challenge the Pittsburgh Penguins' record of 17 straight (though we all know how that ended).