There's a very good chance the 1,028th NHL game coached by Ken Hitchcock will come behind the Columbus bench.
With rumblings of a potential shakeup, the Blue Jackets went out and bought Hitchcock some more time with a well-deserved 4-2 win over the hometown Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
Kristian Huselius notched the winning goal on a power play at 3:36 of the third period and former Oiler Jan Hejda added an insurance marker as Columbus stopped a four-game losing skid and snapped a 13-game losing streak on the road.
"All we needed was a win, we didn't care who it came against," said Jackets goalie Mathieu Garon, a former Oiler who stopped 24 of 26 shots to even his season record at 5-5. "I think it was a desperate game for both teams tonight. Both teams needed this badly and we played well and came out on top."
Prior to Thursday, the Blue Jackets' last win outside of Ohio came Nov. 19 in a 4-1 victory over Dallas.
Columbus captain Rick Nash said the team has to take the win in perspective.
"It's only one," he said. "We have a long way to go. But we played well. We had four lines going tonight."
4th straight loss
Columbus is now four points ahead of Edmonton, which occupies last place in the Western Conference with a 16-23-5 record after dropping its fourth straight game and 12th in the past 13 outings.
The win was only the fourth in 25 starts for the Blue Jackets, who improved to 16-20-9 with their second win in three meetings this season versus the Oilers.
Columbus climbed to 13th in the conference, one point of the St. Louis Blues, who fell 4-2 in Anaheim.
Hitchcock believes his team has been turning its fortunes around despite the lack of wins.
"This is six of the last seven that we have played real solid," he said. "In this game the whole feeling on the bench changed when we scored the third goal. When we got that one we were back to being the team we were before. Everybody was completely energized."
Huselius gave the Blue Jackets the lead to stay two minutes after Sam Gagner tied the game 2-2 at 1:36 of the third period when he wired a high shot to the corner from the goal-line with Oilers rookie goalie Devan Dubnyk out of position.
Huselius also set up the first of R.J. Umberger's two goals and has three consecutive multiple point games (three goals, three assists). He'll try to extend the streak Friday night at Calgary against the Flames, his former team.
Garon downs old team
Antoine Vermette also scored for Columbus, while one-time Oilers netminder Mathieu Garon stopped 24 of 26 shots to even his record at 5-5.
It was the first time since Nov. 30, a span of 19 games, that the Blue Jackets scored more than three goals. In seven of its previous 11 outings, Columbus scored one goal.
Dubnyk, making his second NHL start, finished with 25 saves. He kicked aside all nine shots he faced in the game's opening seven minutes but wasn't helped by Edmonton's poor defensive coverage.
Fernando Pisani, with his first of the season, had the other goal for Edmonton, which is 9-11-3 at Rexall Place this season.
"You'd like to think you could conjure up a way to win against a team that is battling you for last place," said Oilers head coach Pat Quinn. "It's why we are 15th [in the West]. The way the goals are going in is so repetitive it would be hard to understand why we should be anywhere but there."
Edmonton was initially going to go golfing in Palm Springs over the next four days but will hold a mini-camp instead to try and straighten things out.
"We're not playing like we have skill," Quinn said. "We're not playing like we have drive and work ethic. We're not playing like we really care what our occupation is. And we're in 15th place."
The Oilers are off until Tuesday when they host Nashville at 7 p.m. MT.
With files from The Canadian Press
