In Buffalo, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Oliver Bjorkstrand hit for the game-tying goal in the third period to force extra time with the Sabres on Thursday.
Jakub Voracek scored in the extra session to give the Jackets a 4-3 win.
“It felt good because it was in overtime, it was the winning goal,” Voracek said. “I don’t put much pressure on myself if I don’t score for a while. I mean, I never had a scoring drought this long in my life (30 games), so it was kind of was like, ‘All right, as long as I play my game, you’re going to pick up either an assist on a winning goal or make a difference with something else.’ I’ve been in those struggles, goal-scoring droughts a lot of times, and I’m too old to get it in my head, so I would just say just do your job and everything’s going to come.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves in the Columbus win.
“We want to have a good power play, and we know what it takes,” Bjorkstrand said. “It’s sticking to the game plan, and I think we are executing that. That’s what’s creating the chances.”
The Blue Jackets moved to 22-22-1.
“We certainly don’t want to make it a habit (having to come from behind),” Columbus head coach Brad Larsen said. “The thing about tonight is that the turnovers were an issue for us … but we found a way. We get that goal, a huge goal there by Gaunce. And then our power play comes through and settled us down and gave us some energy to get back in it.”
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead in the first period off a strike from Jack Roslovic.
Rasmus Dahlin, Kyle Okposo, and Alex Tuch were the Sabres’ strikers.
“It is a mental game. There’s no question,” Buffalo head coach Don Granato said. “I mean, you just have to keep fighting through it. You just do. Your belief system has to maintain strength. This is what makes or breaks you, is how you deal with that psychologically. … You’ve got to just move forward. It’s aggravating, it’s frustrating, but we need to make sure our belief system is strong so our passion and energy show on every shift.”
The Sabres dropped to 14-24-8.
“Honestly, we got that 3-1 lead, we had a couple of good shifts afterward and then we started changing the way we were playing,” Tuch said. “We were playing too much defense, sitting back. We just gave them opportunities that I didn’t think we did in the second period. First period we were getting our legs under us after a nine-day break or whatever it was. Honestly, we have to be better in longer stretches. Sometimes we can have a bad shift, but we’re not allowed to have back-to-back-to-back shifts where we’re hemmed in our zone and not simplifying, getting away from our game.”
Brendan Gaunce also scored for the Blue Jackets.
Dustin Tokarski made 30 saves in the Sabres loss.
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