The Columbus Blue Jackets are turning into quite the story. The upstart Jackets are on a 12-game point streak and are powering their way up the standings right now. Suddenly the playoffs seem like a real possibility.
NHL Scores: Blue Jackets keep streaking toward playoff spot
Columbus has earned at least a point in 12 straight games and is tied with San Jose for 8th place.
Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sport
So while it’s good to see you Jackets fans are keeping things in perspective, enjoy yourselves. It’s not often these days a team upstages the likes of Pittsburgh or Anaheim on a given night.
Having said that, let’s now focus our attention on every other team that played Friday night.
All The NHL Scores
Get caught up on Tuesday’s NHL scores with recaps from our network of SB Nation team blogs. Here’s a quick glance at the full night of action:
Penguins 4, Islanders 2
Blue Jackets 5, Flames 1
Capitals 6, Jets 1
Red Wings 5, Ducks 1
Five Answers
Prior to last night’s games, we presented five burning questions regarding the night’s action. Here are your cool, soothing answers.
1. Will the Pittsburgh Penguins extend their winning streak to 11 games?
Yup. The Penguins had an awful first period (outshot 14-3 by New York), but bounced back in a big way to steal a 4-2 win on Long Island. In hindsight, the Isles really regretted not capitalizing in that first frame. New York made a couple of key mistakes (including a softie goal through the wickets from Evgeni Nabokov) from that point on that sealed their fate.
2. Can the Islanders rebound from their third period meltdown on Thursday?
They did the exact same thing on Friday. So, no.
3. Will the Columbus Blue Jackets tie the San Jose Sharks in points?
They sure did, with a dominating 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames. All they need now is a loss by San Jose against Minnesota on Saturday to take control of the 8th seed leading up to the evening action. Columbus grabbed the lead during this sequence and never looked back on Friday:
4. Can the Washington Capitals sweep their back-to-back series against the Winnipeg Jets?
The Caps won, 6-1, and it wasn’t even that close. I could sit here and try and explain exactly what happened to you. Or I could sum it up by showing you this goal and this fan:
5. Will the Anaheim Ducks continue their point streak?
Someone's streak had to end, right? The Ducks fell hard to the Red Wings with a 5-1 loss in Anaheim. This one was over when Justin Abdelkader (of all people) notched his first career hat trick in the second period.
Impact Moment
What moment from last night’s games will be making headlines in the coming days?
For those of you wondering why Rick Nash wasn't suspended for this hit on Tomas Kopecky, Brendan Shanahan tried to explain his reasoning last night:
Stat of the Night
Pretty much any stat from Halifax’s 11-1 win over Saint John Friday night.
Post to Post
- Same mistakes, same result for the Islanders
- The honeymoon is over for Winnipeg fans and the Jets.
- The Capitals have a tough decision to make on Mike Ribeiro as the trade deadline nears.
- The Staal brothers have decided to wear visors after their brother got hit in the face by a puck.
- Finally, the tweet of the night (use this as a reference):
A male duck is called a drake. Maybe Anaheim is distracted by Amanda Bynes tonight?
— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitinmotown) March 22, 2013
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