Diskussionen » Ottawa trailed 4-2 to start the third period

COLUMBUS Chad Johnson Jersey Womens , Ohio (AP) The Columbus Blue Jackets backing into a playoff spot with an overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday somehow seemed fitting, considering the weird season it’s been.The road to a second-straight postseason appearance – the first time in franchise history that’s happened – was pocked with potholes for the Blue Jackets. Major injuries, slumping stars and an NHL-worst power play seemed to doom them as the grinding days of midwinter wore on.Not like last year, when the surprising young team had juice, momentum, healthy players having career years and a stunning 16-game winning streak that was the talk of the league. The Blue Jackets cruised to the playoffs with 11 games left in the schedule.By the time February rolled around this time, Columbus looked like an average team at best. The Blue Jackets lost eight of their first 11 games in the month and were slipping down the table in the rugged Metropolitan Division. A series of significant injuries to top players had coach John Tortorella piecing together lines from what was left and call-ups from the AHL team in Cleveland.The Feb. 26 trade deadline brought veteran forwards Thomas Vanek and Mark Letestu, as well as scrappy defenseman Ian Cole. After a pair of West Coast losses at the beginning of March, the Blue Jackets ripped off a 10-game winning streak on the way to winning 13 of 15 games.Still, it took three straight games of overcoming a three-goal deficit to get at least a point, and the overtime loss to Pittsburgh in the season’s penultimate game Thursday to earn a needed point and lock up a playoff spot. New Jersey and Philadelphia were always within a point or two Brian Flynn Jersey Womens , creating urgency every time the Blue Jackets stepped onto the ice in the past week.”There was a point that we stayed in it when we were playing lousy, we were banged up with injuries and we weren’t playing that well at certain times, even when some (injured) guys came back,” Tortorella said. ”We stayed in because (other teams) were losing. We’re just fortunate that we kept on winning when everybody else started winning. It’s crazy.”Crazy, indeed, considering key contributors Boone Jenner, Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg, Seth Jones, Brandon Dubinsky and captain Nick Foligno all missed significant chunks of the schedule with injuries.The Blue Jackets wouldn’t be preparing for the postseason without Artemi Panarin, brought to Columbus in an offseason trade with Chicago Carolina Hurricanes T-Shirts Womens , and 19-year rookie sensation Pierre-Luc Dubois, who got his 48th point of the season Thursday night, breaking the franchise rookie record set by Zach Werenski last season.The 26-year-old Panarin has become the dangerous puck distributor and sniper the Blue Jackets had been seeking, getting 27 goals and 55 assists for a Columbus franchise record of 82 points. He’s put up 13 points in the last five games, including a pair of assists against Pittsburgh.Columbus is playing its grittiest hockey at just the right time.”I am absolutely thrilled,” Tortorella said. ”The amount of work they put in; we were dead and gone there a couple of months ago. I’m thrilled we get to experience what we’re going to experience here.”If they can beat Nashville in the regular-season finale Saturday, they have a chance to secure home-ice advantage for the first round of the postseason. That’s never happened in Columbus, either.”We’ve been playing our best stretch of hockey and coming together as a group, so obviously it’s a good time of year,” Jenner said. ”We have to keep going.”— Two struggling teams will meet in Las Vegas on Saturday night, when the Vegas Golden Knights host the Carolina Hurricanes.The Hurricanes showed heart on Friday night by overcoming a 3-0 deficit to force overtime and earn a point Christian Folin Jersey Womens , but they ended up with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes.It was the third straight loss for Carolina, which has lost six of its past eight games.Article continues below ...Hurricanes winger Sebastian Aho had his assist streak broken Friday, leaving him one shy of the NHL record after he was held without a point for the first time this season. He was trying to become the first player in NHL history with a 13-game assist streak to open a season. Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers in 1982-83, and Ken Linseman of the Boston Bruins in 1985-86 each had 12. Aho has four goals and 13 assists for the season.“We’ve got to be ready to start that game. We can’t give ourselves that hole to dig out of,” Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said on the team’s website. “On the other side of it, it just shows the attitude in this room that we won’t quit. We fight until the very last second. One point is huge, but we wanted that second one.”Martinook, Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Staal tallied goals for the Hurricanes, but Michael Grabner won it for the Coyotes in 3-on-3 overtime.“The boys dug in and found a way to get a point, to battle back and show some character in the way we want to play,” Staal said.The three straight losses all have been by one-goal margins David Perron Jersey Womens , but the recent results have not been good for Carolina, which won four of its first five games to start the season but is now 6-5-2.Vegas (5-7-1) got to the Stanley Cup Finals as an expansion team last season, but the Golden Knights find themselves in seventh place in the Pacific Division heading into Saturday’s action.They have lost two straight games, including Thursday’s 5-3 loss to St. Louis, and have dropped four of their last five. The only win in that span was an overtime victory over Ottawa last Sunday.Vegas is 29th in the league in scoring, having scored 30 times in 13 games. “I don’t think this is about anybody except us. It’s not about the other teams right now it’s about our team,” said Vegas center Erik Haula on the team’s website. “Consistently, we keep making the same kind of mistakes and we aren’t playing a full game. That’s the problem, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re at the bottom of the barrel right now. Nobody is in a good mood. But it’s not going to come easy. We have to really dig in.”Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny have been out with injuries and Nate Schmidt has been unavailable due to a suspension. Pacioretty (upper body) has missed the past three games and remains day-to-day with no timetable for his return. Stastny (lower body) won’t be back for at least another month.“We have times in the game when we play the right way and other times when we don’t, and it ends up costing us big time,” Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.said. “We’re going to have to figure out how to play a full 60 minutes because right now Jimmy Hayes Jersey Womens , 40 is nowhere near close enough.”Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist in the loss to the Blues, and Vegas’ leading scorer, Jonathan Marchessault, picked up an assist, giving him 13 points (six goals, seven assists) for the season.