Dubois, Blue Jackets rally past Maple Leafs in Game 3, lead series
Completes hat trick at 18:24 of OT after Toronto blows three-goal lead in Cup Qualifiers
Pierre-Luc Dubois completed a hat trick at 18:24 of overtime, and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied from three goals down for a 4-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday.
Dubois took a pass from Alexandre Texier and beat Maple Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen with a backhand on a breakaway.
“[Texier] made a nice play, didn’t pass it right away, didn’t chip it right away, just kept the puck, was patient with it and passed a nice little saucer up the middle of the ice to get me free on the breakaway,” said Dubois, whose hat trick is the first in Blue Jackets playoff history. “That was a [heck] of a play by him.”
Columbus leads the best-of-5 series. Teams that win Game 3 after a series is tied 1-1 are 22-7 (75.9 percent) winning a best-of-5 NHL series (14-2 when last used from 1980-86).
Seth Jones scored, and Cam Atkinson had two assists for Columbus, which is the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference. Joonas Korpisalo allowed three goals on 15 shots before being replaced in the second period by Elvis Merzlikins, who made 21 saves.
Game 4 of the best-of-5 series will be in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city, on Friday (8 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, TVAS, FS-O).
“I want them to have a ball right now, that’s why we play,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “It was a really good game by both teams. It’s too bad fans weren’t in the building. I want them to enjoy themselves right now in the proper way. I trust them. They’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
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