Playing without its head coach, the Columbus Blue Jackets bested the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 Monday and leading the charge was Greenwich native Cam Atkinson.
The Blue Jackets forward picked up a hat trick in the teams victory. Monday night’s hat trick was the third of his NHL career.
“It feels really, really good,” Atkinson told Fox Sports Ohio’s Jody Shelley after the game. “It was one of those nights. Obviously I was feeling it. It feels really good to get a win in front of our fans.”
With the game pretty much in hand for Columbus, it appeared that Atkinson, sitting on two goals on the night, wouldn’t get his chance for a third. With 1:12 to play in the game, Brandon Saad connected on the empty-netter that gave the Blue Jackets a 4-2 advantage.
With Montreal goalie Mike Condon back in net, Atkinson was determined to get that third goal. On a break up ice, Brandon Dubinsky charged to the net and dished off at the last second to Atkinson, who was on the left side of the goalie net and buried the shot past Condon for the goal with 25 seconds to play.
“We went up two goals with the empty netter, but just play smart,” said Atkinson to Fox Sports Ohio. “We wanted to play smart there. Obviously I saw that we had a little odd-man rush 3-on-1, so I wanted to do backdoor and my linemates just made great plays all night for me.”
Shortly after the caps started raining down on the Nationwide Arena ice and the celebration was on. Atkinson finished with seven shots on net and finished the game with a +2.
The victory Monday night was Columbus’ first victory in four games.
With 14:40 gone by in the first period and Columbus trailing 1-0, Atkinson tied the score. Dubinsky broke up a play in the Montreal zone and both Dubinsky and Boone Jenner both tried to fire off a shot at net. Atkinson the fired a shot and didn’t connect, but Dubinsky gained control of the loose puck in front of the net, passed off to Atkinson, who didn’t miss the second time around.
Less than three minutes into the second, Atkinson struck again, as he gained control of the puck off a nice pass from Dubinsky behind the net with 2:52 gone by and backhanded a shot past Condon for the 2-1 advantage.
Earlier in the game, Atkinson lit up social media and made a young girl’s birthday one that she won’t soon forget at the same time.
In front of the class, the girl held up a sign that said: “Dad said if 13 scores on my birthday we get a dog.”
“I saw that Bobby Ryan scored yesterday and got another little kid a dog, so I was happy to do it for her,” said Atkinson, talking to Fox Sports Ohio.
On Sunday against the New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators’ Bobby Ryan scored a goal and helped another young fan that held up a sign add a new four-legged friend to their family.
So far this season, Atkinson has 16 goals and 14 assists in 49 games played.
