COLUMBUS, Ohio _ After being swept in back-to-back games to open the season, the Blue Jackets had two words on their minds Monday at Nationwide Arena.
Patience was one. Composure was the other.
As they prepared to face the Buffalo Sabres, a team that swept its first two games, the Jackets aimed to regroup by sticking with those words and refraining from being suckered into another track meet like the 7-2 drubbing they took Saturday in Pittsburgh.
"The biggest thing is the patience in our game," coach John Tortorella said earlier in the day. "This has to be a patient hockey club. No matter if we are winning or losing, we have to have patience _ away from the puck especially."
There was ample opportunity for the Blue Jackets to practice patience against the Sabres, who forced overtime on a power-play goal by Victor Olofsson with just 1:14 left in regulation.
Rather than melting, the Jackets responded by getting their first win 4-3 on a goal at 2:08 of OT by rookie Alexandre Texier, whose wrist shot rewarded captain Nick Foligno for picking the pocket of Sabres star Jack Eichel and sending over a pass.
The assist was the second point of the night for Foligno, who also scored his first goal at 6:46 of the third period to break a 2-2 tie.
Despite outplaying Buffalo for long stretches, particularly in the first two periods, the game remained tight on the scoreboard. In fact, the game remained 0-0 for most of the first period, even though the Jackets peppered shots at Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark in his season debut.
Patience paid off, though, eventually.
Oliver Bjorkstrand opened the scoring with 1:51 left in the first, backhanding his first goal of the season into the net for a 1-0 lead with an opportunistic play off a puck that caromed right to him. And Cam Atkinson scored 56 seconds later for a 2-0 lead, capping a power play with his second goal and second power-play goal of the season.
It was a textbook definition of patience to get it done.
The Jackets, who played without Josh Anderson because of an upper-body injury, outshot Buffalo 14-6 in the first period and yet could've easily been tied 0-0. They also outshot the Sabres 15-6 in the second and wound up in a frustrating 2-2 tie going into the third after Buffalo knotted it on goals by Marcus Johansson and Jeff Skinner, who made a remarkable individual effort to pick Ryan Murray's pocket before rifling the puck past goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
Once again, it took patience and composure not to stray from the game plan _ a theme that will likely remain with these Blue Jackets all season. Rather than letting frustration build, the Jackets simply went back to work in the third, surging ahead on Foligno's goal to cap a power play.
It was a blue-collar goal scored during a scramble in front of the net by a blue-collar captain, who just refused to allow his team to crumble.
