With less than 30 seconds left in the third period, the Blue Jackets had enough time to show their resiliency once again. David Savard launched a shot from the blue line, and Mark Letestu redirected the puck past Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi with 20.7 seconds left, lifting the Blue Jackets to a 5-4 victory. Letestu and Ryan Johansen each scored two goals for the Blue Jackets, who also got a goal from Nick Foligno. Scott Hartnell had a career-high four assists, including one on the game-winning goal. Joe Pavelski scored two goals, and Adam Burish and Logan Couture had one each for the Sharks, who have lost three in a row. Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves. Niemi made 23. The Blue Jackets thought they had regained the lead with 1:18 left when Johansen ripped a shot past Niemi for an apparent career-first hat trick, but the goal was waved off for goaltender interference. Instead of becoming discouraged, the Blue Jackets remained focused and opened their daunting three-game West Coast trip with a victory. The Sharks, who opened a two-game homestand after a five-game East Coast road trip, got another disheartening loss. The Sharks came out strong, outshooting the Blue Jackets 16-5 in the first period, when they built a 2-0 lead on goals by Burish and Pavelski. Columbus roared back in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Johansen scored two goals, and Letestu had one. The Blue Jackets scored three times in a span of 5:14, connecting on three straight shots. The Sharks pulled even 2:05 into the third period on Pavelski's second goal of the game and fourth of the season. He took a pass from Joe Thornton in the right circle and ripped a shot to the far side past Bobrovsky. Couture gave San Jose a 4-3 lead at 8:23 of the third, intercepting a cross-ice pass from defenseman Cody Goloubef deep in the Columbus zone and beating Bobrovsky from close range. Goloubef, playing his first game of the season, tracked down the puck but tried to feed it across the slot to Fedor Tyutin, and Couture made the Blue Jackets pay for his mistake. Columbus answered quickly with Foligno's power-play goal at 11:40 with Sharks defenseman Brent Burns in the penalty box for hooking Jack Skille. The Sharks grabbed a 1-0 lead when Burish, their fourth-line center, scored his first goal of the season 5:11 into the game. Burish took a pass in the neutral zone from Jason Demers, raced down the left boards and wristed a shot from the circle over Bobrovsky's left shoulder. Burish's goal was his second in 69 games with the Sharks and snapped a 47-game goalless streak. It was the second goal of the season produced by San Jose's fourth line; John Scott scored the first Oct. 14 against the Washington Capitals. The Sharks made it 2-0 on Pavelski's' power-play goal at 10:44 of the first period. Couture ripped a shot from the point, and Pavelski, planted in front of the net, tipped it under Bobrovsky's pads. Couture earned his fourth assist, and Patrick Marleau got his sixth assist, the 500th of his career, on the goal. The Blue Jackets had gone 11-for-11 on the penalty kill this season before Pavelski scored. Johansen cut the Sharks lead to 2-1 at 8:22 of the second, skating past defenseman Justin Braun and lifting a sharp-angled, backhand shot over Niemi's right shoulder, just under the crossbar. The Blue Jackets pulled even on Letestu's shorthanded goal at 12:13. Letestu darted behind Couture and defenseman Matt Irwin, took a pass from Artem Anisimov and put a wrist shot past Niemi.
Sharks Quotes
Logan Couture: "We made too many mistakes that ended up in the back of our net. That last goal was a mistake on coverage. We've had some spurts, but the mistakes we made we've gone over for years. They're mental mistakes we need to fix."Todd McLellan: "You give up five (goals), you aren't winning. Our defensive play right now is killing us."
Joe Pavelski: "We haven't been good enough. It [stinks] losing. No one is happy in here. It's got to get better. We'll get through it. Bottom line, with leads like that, we can't give them up. Multiple leads. It's not just one guy."
Penalties
| 1st Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| 02:47 CBJ | Jared Boll Fighting (maj) against Andrew Desjardins | |
| 02:47 SJS | Andrew Desjardins Fighting (maj) against Jared Boll | |
| 10:44 SJS | Eriah Hayes Holding against Mark Letestu | |
| 13:37 CBJ | Matt Calvert Hi-sticking against Tomas Hertl | |
| 16:51 CBJ | Jared Boll Hooking against Tomas Hertl | |
| 2nd Period | ||
| 01:23 CBJ | James Wisniewski Holding against Brent Burns | |
| 04:08 SJS | Jason Demers Holding against Alexander Wennberg | |
| 11:00 CBJ | Jack Skille Interference against James Sheppard | |
| 15:04 SJS | Brent Burns Hi stick - double minor against Matt Calvert | |
| 3rd Period | ||
| 11:04 SJS | Brent Burns Hooking against Jack Skille | |
| 13:15 CBJ | Nick Foligno Hi-sticking against Marc-Edouard Vlasic | |
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