Columbus came out flying in this one, outshooting the Sharks 8-1 at one point and outchancing them 3-0 to open the first period. Things got lopsided in the other direction in a hurry, however, as the Sharks impressively held the Blue Jackets to 0 chances in the second period and 3 in the third, albeit with two of those third period chances coming with Curtis Sanford on the bench.

Again, the chances really tell the story in this one. It was all Sharks in the second and third periods after the Jackets had the better of the even strength play in the first by a pretty good margin. Nice to see Tommy Wingels have an impact in his first game back in San Jose with two scoring chances in the third period.

Jason Demers was full value for his first star selection with his best game of the season by the chances. One thing to keep in mind when evaluating the even strength differentials in this table is that Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Dan Boyle and obviously Thomas Greiss were on the ice for the final two Blue Jackets chances that occurred with the Jackets net empty so they all look a bit worse than they probably deserve.

Head-to-head scoring chances:

Marleau, Thornton and Pavelski faced Jeff Carter, Rick Nash and what was a revolving door of right wingers for the vast majority of their shifts and came out on top both in that key matchup and in their time against the Sami Pahlsson line whenever Scott Arniel could get that unit out against them. Vlasic finally had a poor game as he was on the ice for six of the Jackets' eight chances in this game and lost his matchup against every Jackets forward he faced other than Nash and Derick Brassard although the disclaimer there is that two of those chances were in a 6v5 situation for Columbus as I've mentioned.

More stats from the game: Corsi/Fenwick, Shift Charts, H2H Ice Time, Zonestarts, Play-By-Play, Box Score