Three third-period goals propelled the Jackets past the Ottawa Senators last night by a 5-2 final, in a game the Jackets dominated throughout. Here's what they had to say in the locker room after the game.
John Tortorella
On the game: "We held in the third. You knew after two that you weren't sure what to expect in the third. It was one of those games. We had the puck most of the time, but it's still tied. We had a couple of really good defensive plays by Sonny and a great breakout pass to Nick. We found a way and scored some goals."
On the team's forecheck: "I thought we played as fast as we've played in a while. The guys bought into the fact, as I told you guys before the game, let's get it in first because of them trying to clog up the neutral zone. I thought we did a really good job of that. Our defense, we didn't make too many D-to-D plays. We just quick-upped it right away so it wouldn't allow them to get into their forecheck."
On Sergei Bobrovsky's key third-period saves: "Bob didn't have much work obviously up until the third period and that part of the game. He made some key saves, and that's how you win. It's a tough game for Bob to play. He faced 12 shots going into the third. In the first period, they weren't even in our end zone. He's faced a couple of those games. I really appreciate his concentration."
On Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno getting off the schneid: "I'm watching (Cam) pretty closely just to see if we can get him to touch the puck more. There were three or four shifts in a row where he didn't touch the puck five-on-five. An offensive guy wants the puck. It's nice to say you're getting chances, but goal scorers want to score. Cam has been stuck a little bit here. Nicky has been stuck. He shot the puck. That was the just encouraging thing to me. I did not think there was any hesitation in his shot, so maybe that'll help him."
Nick Foligno
"It was nice. I'm really proud of our team. We've been playing to our identity for a little while here. It's just creeping forward. You can see it. Our team is starting to build toward that, and tonight we really did. Our start was outstanding -- how fast we played, how heavy we played down low."
"That's a pretty dangerous team even though they're trying to find themselves. They're still pretty offensive, and they showed us that in the two we kind of gave them tonight. But we stuck with it and found a way to score big goals."
On scoring:
"I felt like there were some games I was playing well and it just wasn't going in there. There were some games I wasn't. Hopefully this just builds some more consistency."
Ryan Murray
"That game looked like it might have gone either way at some points there in the third. They had a slow start but they finished off really well and had a lot of good zone time. Bob was great again when he had to be. If we don't get all those saves on the PK, you never know which way the game goes. It probably goes the other way, to be honest. That was huge for us, and it's a big win for us."
On Markus Nutivaara's goal: "It's great. We've had a running bet going for who gets the next goal, so he won a bit of money off of me tonight. It's good. It's awesome. We looked at the replay and thought it might have been tipped, but Sedsy said no. I'm really happy for him."
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