TB 5, CBJ 3: Fabbro Injured As Blue Jackets Late Rally Comes Up Just Short In Loss To Lightning

By Ed Francis on December 17, 2024 at 10:07 pm
The Columbus Blue Jackets scored three times in the third period to make things very interesting, but a late empty-netter from Tampa Bay gives the Lightning a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night.
© Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
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  1 2 3 F
CBJ 0 0 3 3
TB 1 3 1 5

CBJ GOALS: 
Pyyhtia (P3, 7:23)
Fantilli (P3, 8:05)
Sillinger (P3, 14:11)

Almost.

The Columbus Blue Jackets dropped their fifth straight game Tuesday night, falling 5-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

But they almost pulled off an improbable comeback — even for Blue Jackets versus Lightning standards.

Mikael Pyyhtia and Adam Fantilli scored less than a minute apart in the third period and Cole Sillinger added a power play goal six minutes later to turn Tampa's 4-0 lead into a 4-3 game with just under six minutes left in regulation.

"We're a team that can score goals and we came back on these guys on our home ice," said Sillinger, referring to the Blue Jackets 7-6 overtime win in November in a game Tampa had a 3-0 lead early. 

Columbus had chances to tie the game in the final minutes, but an empty-net goal from Tampa Bay put the game out of reach.

"Unfortunately we didn't complete the comeback, but I liked the perseverance from our group," said Sillinger.

Earlier in the game, Sillinger picked up a total of 17 minutes worth of penalties following a hit from Tampa's Conor Geekie on defenseman Dante Fabbro. Fabbro's knee took the brunt of the hit and he was helped off the ice immediately. He would not return and the team is calling it a lower-body injury. 

After the game, head coach Dean Evason did not have an update on the extent of Fabbro's injury but said that he's "laying on a table right now." 

"He did the right thing," said Evason, referring to Sillinger standing up for Fabbro.

Jet Greaves, who got his third start in four games for Columbus, stopped 27 shots from the Lightning, including several big saves that kept the Blue Jackets in position to make the comeback effort.

Here's how went down from the Gulf side of Florida:

1st Period:

(3:21 — TB Goal): The only goal in the opening twenty minutes comes from the Lightning's Luke Glendening, who gets his second goal of the season on a deflection. Tampa goes D to D and Nick Perbix's shot from the point is perfectly tipped by Glendening. Not a lot Greaves could've done on this one.

(15:14 — Pad, Crossbars, Whistle): Nick Paul somehow doesn't score here. Greaves just gets enough of the puck on his pad to send the puck up off the posts and remain out of the net. Just moments later, both Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point are robbed by Greaves. Any of those three shots easily could've been a goal. 

2nd Period:

(1:28 — TB Goal): After being denied by the tip of a pad and the ring of a post in the first, Paul gets his goal here and makes it a 2-0 Lightning lead. The Blue Jackets win the faceoff in their own zone but can't get the puck out. It's wrapped around the boards, Paul gets it, walks into the slot, and scores.

(3:08 — Fabbro Goes Down): It didn't look intentional from Conor Geekie, but his hit attempt on Fabbro results in knee-on-knee contact and Fabbro immediately goes down. He was helped off the ice and off the bench and would not return.

(7:36 — TB Goal): Another Tampa goal, this one makes it 3-0. Kevin Labanc has trouble with the puck in the Tampa zone and it creates a brief two-on-one. Kent Johnson gets back to spare Damon Severson a full-fledged odd-man rush, but it's not enough to stop Jake Guentzel from getting a shot off in the slot. Greaves makes the initial save but gives up a rebound that goes right to Guentzel, who puts it back to make it seven straight games with a goal for the former Penguin.

(9:53 — The Fabbro Blowback): Sillinger sees an opportunity to let Geekie know how the Blue Jackets feel about the earlier hit on Fabbro. For it, Sillinger gets two for instigating, five for fighting, and a game misconduct. Mathieu Olivier would get two for roughing. On the Tampa side of things, Brandon Hagel gets two for instigating and Geekie two for roughing. The minors would cancel each other out, but Sillinger's five for fighting would give Tampa a long power play...

(14:18 — TB Goal): ...and with just 35 seconds left in that power play, the Lightning make it 4-0. Mitchell Chaffee is the goal-scorer.

3rd Period:

(7:23, 8:05, 14:11 — CBJ Goals): It takes a while but the Blue Jackets get to work just over seven minutes into the third period and score three consecutive goals. First up is Pyythia, who gets rewarded for playing on the penalty kill with a short-handed strike on his 23rd birthday. Sean Kuraly makes a good play to take the puck away from the Lightning and finds Pyyhtia all alone in the slot.

Less than a minute later, Fantilli makes it a 4-2 goal. Tampa turns it over while in the midst of a line change and it creates a 3-on-1 for the Blue Jackets. Fantilli takes the shot and gets his sixth goal of the season. Kirill Marchenko's assist on the goal is his 19th of the season and puts him at 30 points on the campaign.

After 17 minutes in penalty time, Sillinger is fresh and connects with a power play goal to make it a 4-3, one-goal game. The assists from Marchenko (now at 31 points) and Dmitri Voronkov are both exquisite: Marchy gets a no-look back-handed pass off from the corner to Voronkov, who gets a touch-pass perfectly to Sillinger for the goal. 

(17:51 — TB Goal): The Blue Jackets come up just short of a remarkable, feverish comeback. Brayden Point gets the empty-netter to make it 5-3 and seal the deal.

CBJ GAME STATS TB
31 SHOTS 32
44% FACEOFFS 56%
1/5 POWER PLAY 1/2
1/2 PENALTY KILL 4/5
24 HITS 16
18 GIVEAWAYS 27
2 TAKEAWAYS 6
5 BLOCKED SHOTS 21
ALL SITUATIONS ADVANCED STATS
2.51 EXPECTED GOALS 3.80
65 SHOT ATTEMPTS 51
30 SCORING CHANCES 28
7 HIGH-DANGER CHANCES 15
Data via NHL.com & NaturalStatTrick.com

Stat Chat:

  • It was the second straight game for the Blue Jackets where they had five opportunities on the power play — Sillinger's goal to make it a 4-3 game was the only goal of all ten attempts over the brief road trip.
     
  • The Blue Jackets had more shot attempts for the game (65-51), but had just seven of the 22 high-danger scoring chances for the game. Tampa picked their moments.
     
  • Werenski was on the ice for 30:12 Tuesday night, the third time this season he's skated for more than 30 minutes in a game.

     

Up Next:

The Blue Jackets return to Columbus for a Thursday night tilt against the New Jersey Devils. Puck drop is 7 p.m. 
 

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