COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets wanted their last home game in a month to be memorable. Nikola Mirotic Pelicans Jersey . Linemates Ryan Johansen and Boone Jenner each had a goal and an assist in the first period, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves to lead the Blue Jackets past the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night. It was Columbus final home game until March 1, due to four road games and the NHL Olympic hiatus. "We definitely wanted to leave Columbus on a good note," Johansen said of the impending West Coast road trip that will lead into the break. "Now were heading out with three really tough games. We wanted to finish this off well, and obviously we did." After Brad Boyes cut Floridas deficit to 2-1 early in the second period, Nick Foligno and Mark Letestu scored for the Blue Jackets. Nathan Horton had two assists in the opening 20 minutes. In their last 13 games, the Blue Jackets won eight in a row, lost three straight and now have won the past two. Down 3-1 going into the third, the Panthers dominated the pace but Bobrovsky made several big stops to maintain the two-goal lead. He improved to 11-2 in his last 13 starts. "Our goalie was very good," coach Todd Richards said. "We were a very opportunistic group." The Blue Jackets considered it a must-win game, because they started the day in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, one point out of third place and one point out of a wild-card spot. In a crisp first period, the Blue Jackets line of Johansen, Jenner and Horton -- ages 21, 20 and 28, respectively -- played particularly well. After getting a pass from Horton, Johansen carried the puck from the right wing and waited patiently for an opening with Jenner on his wing. As Johansen ran out of room, he wristed a shot that goalie Tim Thomas stopped. But as Thomas, lying on his stomach, tried to gather the puck, he flicked it with his stick under his glove. Jenner crashed the net and jammed the puck into an empty net at 15:33 for his ninth goal. "I blocked it, and then I went to pull it back with my stick, and my glove was caught on the lip of the net," said Thomas, who had 26 saves as the Panthers lost their third in a row. "Thats bad luck. We cant afford that. The team needs me to keep us as close as possible. Were a little bit of a fragile team right now. That was terrible." Just 2 1/2 minutes later, Jenner ended up with the puck off a pass from Horton and skated parallel to the goal line to the left wing. Jenner threw a blind, behind-the-back pass to the crease where Johansen was alone for his 22nd. "Boone works so hard and creates so many turnovers," said Horton, a big off-season free-agent signing from Boston who played six years for the Panthers. "And Joey (Johansen), when he has the puck, good things happen." Florida dominated the opening minutes of the second, outshooting the Blue Jackets 8-1. That pressure paid off when Boyes scored his 15th goal. The puck went in off the stick of Columbus defenceman David Savard. After Floridas Nick Bjugstad struck a post with a wrist shot that would have tied the game, the Blue Jackets pulled away. Foligno skated with the puck through the neutral zone, and from near the top of the right circle unloaded a snap shot that appeared to handcuff Thomas and trickled through his pads. He dived with his stick to try to prevent it from going over the line, but was too late. "They got a missed puck that bobbled through," Florida coach Peter Horachek said. "Then they had two that were blindly kind of thrown behind themselves that went to people. Our chances were point blank but we didnt capitalize." NOTES: Columbus LW Blake Comeau, still hurting from a sprained ligament in his left knee, was scratched for the second straight game. ... It was the first meeting between the teams in almost two years. Columbus had won the last five matchups. ... Florida will play two of its final three games at home before the Olympic break. ... Savard returned after missing four games with an illness. ... Columbus has won the last six meetings with the Panthers, dating to 2007, and is 9-4 in the series. Custom Pelicans Jerseys . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Jrue Holiday Pelicans Jersey .Y. -- A month ago, Syracuse was unbeaten, ranked No.PARIS -- Nothing came easily for Maria Sharapova in the French Open final. Serves hit by her surgically repaired shoulder often missed the mark, resulting in 12 double-faults. Shots that would be winners against most opponents were retrieved by Simona Halep and sent right back. Leads that usually hold up vanished in a blink. On a muggy afternoon, with the temperature in the high 70s (20s Celsius), points were lung-searing struggles. Sharapova was up to the task. In an entertaining and undulating championship match -- the first womens final at Roland Garros in 13 years to go three sets -- Sharapova showed that shes as tough as they come, particularly on the red clay that used to flummox her. She edged Halep 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 Saturday to win a second French Open title in three years. "This is the toughest Grand Slam final Ive ever played," Sharapova said. It is her fifth major trophy in all. Remarkably, Sharapova owns twice as many from Paris as the one each she won at Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006, and the Australian Open in 2008. "If somebody had told me ... at some stage in my career, that Id have more Roland Garros titles than any other Grand Slam, Id probably go get drunk," Sharapova said with a chuckle. "Or tell them to get drunk. One or the other." The 3-hour, 2-minute tangle featured too many momentum swings to count, filled with lengthy baseline exchanges, and terrific defence and shotmaking by both women. Not bad for someone who once famously described herself as feeling like a "cow on ice" when it came to playing on clay, a slow, demanding surface that requires excellent footwork. Now Sharapova knows how to move on clay, and can stretch points when needed. Since the start of 2012, Sharapova is 54-4 with seven titles on clay. Shes also won 20 consecutive clay three-setters, including four in a row this week. "It says that shes very fit. It says that shes very determined," said Sven Groenefeld, Sharapovas coach. "And it says that she never gives up." Sharapova broke into a huge smile while hoisting the trophy overhead, then shaking it with both hands and scanning a stadium that, improbably, has become hers. This was her third final in a row in Paris: She won the 2012 title to complete a career Grand Slam, then lost last year to Serena Williams, who bowed out in the second round this time. Sharapova is 20-1 the last thhree years at Roland Garros -- which is nothing compared to Rafael Nadals 65-1 career French Open mark heading into Sundays final Sunday against Novak Djokovic, but certainly quite impressive. Nikola Mirotic Jersey. "Youre not just born being a natural clay-court player. OK, maybe if youre Nadal. But certainly not me," Sharapova said. "I didnt grow up on it; didnt play on it. I just took it upon myself to make myself better on it." Plus, Sharapova had an operation on her right shoulder, the one she uses to swing her racket, in October 2008. That joint troubled the Russian again in 2013, when she played one match from July to December. She now travels with a physiotherapist, Jerome Bianchi, and told him during the post-match ceremony, "Thank you for keeping me healthy." This was the ninth Grand Slam final for the No. 7-seeded Sharapova, and the first for Halep, a 22-year-old Romanian seeded fourth. Supported by a dozen folks in her guest box wearing red T-shirts saying "Allez Simona," and fans that chanted her first name, Halep acquitted herself well, showing off the scrambling baseline style that carried her to six straight-set wins until Saturday. "I will not forget this match," said Halep, who wiped away tears afterward. Each time it appeared Sharapova was ready to pull away, she was forced to do extra work. At 4-3 in the second set, Sharapova held two break points, but Halep saved both with gutsy groundstrokes. In the tiebreaker, Sharapova got within two points of victory at 5-3, but Halep took the next four to claim the set. Thats when Sharapova left for the locker room, taking an 8-minute break during which she changed out of her sweat-soaked outfit -- and let Halep stew for a bit. Sharapova went ahead 4-2, but Halep broke back to 4-all. It turned out that was her last stand, though. Sharapova wouldnt lose another point, gritting her teeth and shaking her fists after breaking at love for 5-4 with a backhand winner, then holding at love by forcing a backhand error from Halep on match point. When it ended, Sharapova dropped to her knees, caking her shins with clay, and folded her body forward, burying her face in her hands. "I had good tactics today. I opened the angles. Also, I was hitting the ball strong," Halep said. But Sharapova, Halep continued, "was moving really well." Cow on ice? More like Queen of Clay. ' ' '