In Washington Friday, the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets’ Artemi Panarin scored to tie their game with the Capitals at 2-2 with just 27 seconds gone in the middle frame.
But the Caps responded with two goals from Jay Beagle and Lars Eller 1:28 apart to take a 4-2 lead and close out the Jackets with the win.
It was a devastating loss for the Jackets who dropped out of a playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
“We know we have it in here to be a playoff team and a lot more,” the Blue Jackets’ Nick Foligno said. “It’s just finding our game again. It’s weird. We’re a little fragile right now, but we’ve got to find that edge that when things happen we can bounce right back.”
With the New York Islanders winning in OT Friday, Columbus is now out of the playoff spot.
Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored for the Jackets as they dropped to 27-23-4.
Braden Holtby made 35 saves in picking up the win.
“Obviously, they’re desperate,” Beagle said. “They wanted to win that game, they needed to win that game. We’re starting to get into playoff mode, and that’s what you see when teams get into playoff mode.”
“[Holtby] has been dialed in pretty good,” Caps head coach Barry Trotz said. “Columbus is active around the net so he doesn’t get a real break. … They kept him busy, but he’s a better busy goalie.”
Evegeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson added markers in the win.
“When guys like [Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin] are not scoring, we can still win games and we can still score four goals. That speaks to how deep this team is,” the Caps’ Lars Eller said after scoring a goal in the win.
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Capitals highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 13 saves in taking the loss.
“You can’t put it all to bad luck. You can whine about luck and puck luck. We’ve got to force it to go our way. I think we’re on the right road. We’ve just got to keep our wits about ourselves and keep banging away here,” Columbus had coach John Tortorella said after the game.
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