Blue Jackets battle back to start Traverse tourney with a win

The Blue Jackets opened the annual NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Mich., with a 4-3 overtime win against Toronto on Thursday afternoon.

Quote of the Game

Dunne: "Even if it's just a prospects game, I think winning can teach winning, and it's important to have a winning culture. Anytime you put on the jersey, you want to represent it, so it doesn't matter if it's an exhibition game or a rookie tournament or the real deal. You want to play with some pride and you want to win that game. It was big for us, especially the way we started. That second and third, we played with a lot of intensity and tenacity."

CBJ Standouts

• Cleveland Monsters signee Tristan Mullin had a Gordie Howe hat trick, while linemate Cole Fonstad -- another Monsters pledge -- also had a goal and an assist.
• Chinakhov, the Blue Jackets' first-round pick in the 2020 draft and last year's KHL rookie of the year, scored a goal in his first-ever game in union blue.
• Dunne's winner completed the comeback win just 1:06 into the 3-on-3 overtime.

Quick Recap

Chinakhov, 2021 first-round pick Cole Sillinger and defenseman Jake Christiansen all had good looks in the first period, but none could best Toronto goalie Ian Scott. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs scored twice on the other end to take a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. Nicholas Robertson was left alone in front 6:16 into the game and put an Alexander Steeves pass past CBJ goalie Jet Greaves, while at 9:11, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev pushed a rebound into the net.
But Columbus dominated the second period and made it a 2-2 game in the first 10 minutes. First, Fonstad's clearing attempt off the wall hit Mullin in stride for a 2-on-1, and the latter kept the puck and fired a bar-down wrist past Scott at 1:57. Then at 9:21, just after a CBJ power play expired, the two switched roles, with Mullin's pass across the crease to Fonstad put on a tee for an easy finish. But Toronto took a 3-2 lead on the power play with 4:11 left in the period as Matt Hellickson scored through a screen.
Sillinger hit the post early in the third but linemate Chinakhov didn't miss a few shifts later, taking a feed from Sillinger in transition and ripping a shot past the glove of Scott at 5:33. Columbus thought it had taken the lead with three minutes to go on a goal by 2020 fifth-round pick Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm, but it was waved off for goaltender interference.
It didn't take long in overtime, though, for Columbus to win it off an offensive zone faceoff. Dunne won the puck to Meyer, who reversed it far side to Christiansen. From there, a tic-tac-toe move saw Christiansen return it to Meyer in the right circle, and the Powell, Ohio, native fed it to Dunne at the back post for an easy tap-in.

Quick Takeaways

1. You want to see first-round picks make an impact in tournaments like this, and Chinakhov and Sillinger did just that. Chinakhov's no-doubt goal had to be a confidence booster for the Russian as he begins his transition to the North American game, while Sillinger could have had two or three given how much he was around the puck. It was a big start for the pair.
   2. Defensively, two European players stood out in Tim Berni (2018 sixth-round pick) and Stanislav Svozil (2021 third-round pick). The former was a calm, cool, collected player in first-line minutes, while Svozil showed the attacking confidence he's had throughout development camp.
   3. A few CBJ players after the game said one of the things the coaching staff harped on was playing a hard-working style. These prospects camp games are rarely going to be pretty -- they're played at a million miles per hour by players who barely know each other and are all trying to catch some eyes -- so strategy often takes a back seat. But the Blue Jackets did emphasize honest play, and that's what they got during a fun comeback victory.

Notable

CBJ draft picks Tyler Angle (2019, seventh round) and James Malatesta (2021, fifth round) also earned assists. ... Mullan and Christiansen were each plus-3. … Greaves finished with 19 saves on 22 shots, including a pair of key denials of Robertson - the Leafs' second-round pick in 2019 who played against Columbus in the 2020 playoff bubble - on one shift and a big transition stop on Jeremy McKenna in the second. … Cleveland Monsters assistant coach Trent Vogelhuber ran the bench. … The Blue Jackets have won the tournament title on five occasions, capturing the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup in 2005, 2006, 2014, 2015 and 2018.

Roster Report

The roster featured nine CBJ draftees -- Sillinger, Chinakhov, Svozil, Bjorgvik-Holm, Malatesta, forward Ben Boyd (2021, sixth round), Berni, forward Martin Rysavy (2021, seventh round) and Angle -- as well as signees Dunne, Meyer and Christiansen.

Up Next

Columbus faces Dallas on Friday night at 7 p.m. in their second of four games in the tournament.