COLUMBUS -- On the final game of an early-season, three-game homestand, the Blue Jackets learned one valuable lesson before heading out on the road -- you can't let up even with a three-goal lead.
Columbus roared out to an early 3-0 lead but watched Calgary draw within one with two third-period goals. The Flames pulled the goalie with two minutes left and the Blue Jackets had to weather a final rally before getting the win
"Thought first couple periods we did well with forecheck and let it go in the third," said Jack Skille, who scored the first goal. "We just have to work on our killer mentality as a group and keep playing the way we got us there."
It's a lot easier to get that message across though when you are 3-1 compared to past years when they would stumble out of the gates to a slow start. It is something that all young teams have to go through even though head coach Todd Richards wish it would have sunk in more by now.
"That's learning to win. We went through this a little bit last year," he said. "The first period you are up and we have to learn to continue to do those things that let us have the same success."
What Richards took encouragement out of is that even in the last two minutes, where Calgary kept attacking the net and when Sergei Bobrovsky made a couple huge saves, Richards liked seeing how his team was able to battle and weather it. Even those who lost their sticks were diving to try and block shots.
At least early in the season, when the Jackets are playing their game they are formidable. During the first two periods, the forechecking was aggressive while the line of Skille-Mark Letestu and Matt Calvert accounted for two of the three goals. Ryan Johansen also had his team-leading fourth.
There were very few defensive breakdowns until the third, which is why the Flames made it a lot closer than it should have been.
"The good thing is we took care of business early on. In the last eight minutes it was just desperate hockey and we found a way to win," Johansen said.
Columbus hits the road for four games starting with Ottawa on Saturday night, which marks the first back-to-back games of the year. After that comes a West swing of three games in four days next week with San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles. A success would be going 2-1-1.
"It was crazy at the end but we finished and won," Bobrovsky said. "The most important thing is we got two points and move forward."
