In Toronto, bad passing and poor ice awareness led to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Brayden Point scoring the game and series-winning goal at 5:12 of extra time for a 5-4 final.
“It was just a good read by [Kucherov],” Point said. “He steals the puck and he’s a guy who sees the ice so well. He spots me right away in front of the net and I was able to make a backhand move.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves in the game including 22 in the middle frame.
Columbus swept the heavily favored Lighting in last season’s opening round.
“Well, we had 422 days to think about it, but who’s counting?” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s funny how the hockey gods work. To go through what we did last year and then to just get second-guessed on a lot of things we did and go through the season, and then have the pause and everything that’s happened. And then to end up during re-seeding and new rules and all those things, and to still end up playing the same team, it’s easy to sit up here and say you wanted them now. But it was good to get them and good to get this result.”
The Blue Jackets fell behind, 0-2, after the first period and rallied back to a 4-2 lead.
“I’m not [going to] get into the touchy-feely stuff in the moral victories and all that,” coach John Tortorella said.
Nick Foligno and Kevin Stenlund got Columbus even at 2-2.
“I’m sure they looked at their team after they lost to us last year and looked to ways to make themselves better, just like we tried to do,” Foligno said. “And you could just see it there, they’re obviously committed to the defensive side of the game and then have the firepower to score. And it’s a credit to them. They found a way to win the series.”
Tyler Johnson and Blake Coleman staked the Bolts to the early two-goal lead.
“I don’t think anybody was happy with how the second unfolded,” Johnson said. “We just got away from our game a little bit but [Cooper] came in, gave us a real composed speech and just reassured us what kind of team we had and just kind of hit the reset button.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Alexander Wennberg put the Jackets up, 4-2.
“We just kind of sat back and allowed them to kind of push us and start making some plays,” Columbus’ Seth Jones said. “And they found a way to put some pucks in the net and send it to overtime.”
Kevin Shattenkirk got the Lighting within one goal of Columbus and, Anthony Cirelli forced the extra session with a goal with 1;38 left on the regulation clock.
[WATCH: All Blue Jackets vs. Lightning highlights]
Joonas Korpisalo made 20 saves in the loss and was left alone on the game-winner.
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