Friday, April 19, 2013
Associated Press
ANAHEIM, CALIF.
With four games left, the Columbus Blue Jackets are back in a playoff spot.
Now they will try to hold off the Detroit Red Wings.
Fedor Tyutin scored 2:19 into overtime, and the Blue Jackets won their fifth straight game and moved into eighth place in the Western Conference with a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.
Columbus has three games left on a six-game trip before returning home for the finale against Nashville.
“We are extremely committed. That’s all we talk about,” forward R.J. Umberger said. “We want to make the playoffs and we want to win the Stanley Cup. That’s our goal from Day One.”
Blake Comeau and Matt Calvert also scored for the Blue Jackets, who rallied to win and jumped two points ahead of Detroit, which lost earlier Wednesday.
Columbus moved within one point of seventh-place St. Louis, which has two games in hand. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
The Ducks, who already have clinched a postseason berth, lead Los Angeles and San Jose by seven points in their bid for their second Pacific Division title.
Anaheim has lost six of nine home games after winning a franchise-record 13 in a row at Honda Center.
“There were lulls in the game where they took the energy back,” Ducks center Andrew Cogliano said. “That’s the difference on why we’re not winning. We’re letting teams get back into the game.”
Defenseman Sami Vatanen scored his first NHL goal, one day after Anaheim recalled him from the minors, and David Steckel ended a 32-game goal drought. Viktor Fasth stopped 25 shots, including a short-handed breakaway by Umberger in the first period.