Perry nets game winner as Ducks defeat Blue Jackets
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Corey Perry followed a fortuitous bounce with the incredible patience of one of the NHL's top goal-scorers.
Perry scored an unassisted goal with 2:15 remaining Sunday as the road-weary Anaheim Ducks posted a 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets before 10,542 in Nationwide Arena.
"One of those things where it takes a weird hop and comes right to me," Perry said, after scoring his sixth goal and second game-winner of the season. "When it came to me, I knew what I had to do."
Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen tried to rim the puck around the boards behind his own net, but he played the carom too sharply and the puck kicked toward Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and drifted into the slot.
Perry gathered it and skated wide, waiting for Bobrovsky to commit. As Perry fired it home, Bobrovsky flailed helplessly.
Peter Holland, Ryan Getzlaf and Emerson Etem also scored for the Ducks, who are four games deep on a season-long eight-game road trip. Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen won his second straight start with 18 saves.
Artem Anisimov scored twice for the Blue Jackets, while Blake Comeau also scored. Bobrovsky overcame a poor goal in the second period to finish with 28 saves.
The Blue Jackets had won three straight.
"We had a lull in our game," Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno said. "We have to get rid of that. It's what's keeping us from being a great team. When we play our style, we're a really hard team to play against."
The game took a dramatic turn with 34.8 seconds remaining in the second period, when Brandon Dubinsky -- the Blue Jackets' emotional spark plug -- leveled Ducks forward Saku Koivu just after Koivu carried the puck across the red line and passed it.
Dubinsky's skates did not leave the ice, but appeared on replay to thrust upward and slam his right shoulder into Koivu's right shoulder and then his head.
Koivu face-first fell to the ice, before leaving a few seconds later with the help of two teammates.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said Koivu was "knocked out."
But said after the game that Koivu "looked like he was OK."
Boudreau declined to comment further on the hit.
Dubinsky, who was assessed a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct for the hit, pleaded innocence after the game.
"I didn't agree with the call," Dubinsky said, "but the refs see it in game speed and they have to make a call.
"Obviously I don't think I'm a dirty player. I don't think I was trying to target his head. I understand the league is trying to crack down on hits to the head, and I don't think it was one."
The Ducks, who came into the game with the worst power play in the league, scored only once during the five minutes.
It was Etem's goal at 1:51 of the third period, scored from the low slot after a Teemu Selanne shot was stopped by Bobrovsky. That gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead.
The Blue Jackets tied it up again at 8:24 of the third when a James Wisniewski shot glanced off Anisimov before it beat Andersen to make it 3-3.
After Perry gave the Ducks the lead, the Jackets had a power play for the final 1:27 -- their only man-advantage of the game -- but couldn't score.
NOTES: Anaheim will be without RW Jakob Silfverberg for at least one month after he suffered a broken hand on Friday in Ottawa. ... Ducks C Mathieu Perrault, second on the club with nine points, is out indefinitely with a sprained wrist. ... Ducks LW Dustin Penner, out the last four games with a concussion, is now symptom-free, the club said. He joined the Ducks in Columbus on Saturday, but did not dress. ... The Blue Jackets said rookie LW Boone Jenner is out indefinitely with a leg injury. ... Columbus C Derek MacKenzie is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.