Tickets for the Columbus Blue Jackets' second-round playoff series in the Stanley Cup go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Friday. Just like when the Jackets beat Tampa Bay, tickets will probably sell quickly. Here's what you need to know: Where can I buy them? Tickets will be available for sale at multiple locations. You can try to buy them online at BlueJackets.com or Ticketmaster.com or in person at the Nationwide Arena Box Office, the Fox Sports Ohio Blue Line at Tuttle Mall, and three Chiller Ice Rinks in Dublin, at Easton and in Lewis Center. There is a limit of four tickets per purchase and only Ohio residents are eligible to buy them right now. How many tickets will be available Friday? An exact number wasn't available from the team. Cameron Scholvin, the Blue Jacket's senior vice president and chief operating officer, said it will be "relatively similar" to the "few thousand" tickets made available to subscribers to the team's email newsletter, "Flag Bearer." So some tickets were already sold? Yes, the first batch of single game tickets went up for sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. to "Flag Bearer" subscribers who were sent an early access code Thursday morning. Anyone can sign up for the newsletter. The "few thousand" tickets made available Thursday sold out after 30 minutes, Scholvin said. Season ticket holders, as well as corporate sponsors, also have already had a chance to buy second-round tickets, Scholvin said. Those groups had an earlier opportunity to purchase tickets for all rounds of the postseason, Scholvin said. What if I miss out on Friday's window? There are still other tickets available. One way to get access to postseason tickets is by purchasing a season-ticket package for next year, Scholvin said. That will not only give you a chance to buy second-round tickets, but also tickets for later rounds if the Jackets continue to win, he said. Purchasing either a full-season package or a partial package gives you postseason ticket access, he said. The other option: Keep checking BlueJackets.com. That's because the team is mandated by the NHL to set aside a certain number of tickets for the opposing team, broadcast partners, among others. But those groups might not claim all of the tickets being held for them, Scholvin said, and whatever is left will be released on a rolling basis. How much do tickets cost? They start at $95. What about the resale market? That's always an option. As of Thursday night, tickets on StubHub for the Jackets' first second-round home game were starting at $168. Jackets tickets all became paperless earlier this season, which is supposed to reduce counterfeit chances, but be mindful that ticket scams do exist. If a website doesn't offer all the terms of the sale or offer a secure payment method, stay away, according to the Better Business Bureau. And if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. When does the second round start? It depends on when the other first-round series finish. The Blue Jackets will play the winner of the Boston Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs series, which is currently tied 2-2 with Game 5 set for Friday night. If the series goes seven games, Game 7 will be Tuesday in Boston and the second round for Columbus won't start until Thursday at the earliest. As the Blue Jackets will be the lower seed, they will play their first two games on the road. How can I stay updated on the team? Easy. Read The Dispatch's bluejacketsxtra.com. kstankiewicz@dispatch.com @kevin_stank<doc-sep>COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets dumped the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 to complete what is arguably the most unlikely first-round playoff upset in the NHL’s modern history. This is the Blue Jackets’ 18th season in the NHL and the franchise hadn’t won a playoff series before sweeping the Stanley Cup favorite Lightning in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal. “This was the loudest crowd I’ve ever played in front of,” Columbus center Matt Duchene said. “You could feel how much the city needed and wanted this." The Lightning won 62 games, tying an NHL regular-season record, to capture the Presidents' Trophy. This is the first time a Presidents' Trophy winner was swept in the first round. Since 1987, the lower seed has won 37.5% of the series in the NHL’s opening round. But few saw this upset coming. The Lightning were the league’s best offensive team and the Blue Jackets outscored them 19-8. The Lightning were the NHL’s top penalty-killing team this season and the Blue Jackets were ranked 28th on the power play. But the Blue Jackets went 5-for-10 with the man advantage. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay’s league-leading power play only scored one goal against the Blue Jackets. WE GOT IT ALL WRONG: Redoing Stanley Cup picks More:How we screwed up in picking the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup More:Biggest postseason flops the past 30 years “They did a lot of good things and we didn’t have an answer for them,” said Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos, a 45-goal scorer who only had one in this playoff series. He was minus-8 in the four games. The Lightning had the Blue Jackets down 3-0 in the first period of the first game, but couldn’t close them out. That may have been the turning point, the Blue Jackets said. “We played with desperation the whole series even when we got the lead in the series, and that was a great recipe for success,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. The Blue Jackets have only been in the playoffs five times, and three of those appearances have come in the last three seasons. This year, the Blue Jackets made a bold decision at the trade deadline to keep potential unrestricted free agents Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin and then traded for Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. “It’s a hard league to gain respect and we are going about it the right way,” Columbus coach John Tortorella said. Tortorella is a fiery, tough-talking, aggressive coach, and that’s how the Blue Jackets played against the Lightning. They gave the Lightning no time and space with the puck. “At the end of the day, we didn’t see this coming,” Lightning forward Ryan Callahan said. The Lightning will be compared to the 1970-71 Boston Bruins (taken down by the Montreal Canadiens with Ken Dryden in net) or the 1981-82 Edmonton Oilers (taken out by the Los Angeles Kings the season Wayne Gretzky registered 92 goals and 212 points). But those Bruins and Oilers series both went the distance. This result has similarity to the 2002-03 Detroit Red Wings being swept by the goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and play of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. However, the Ducks were a No. 7 seed and the Red Wings were not the Presidents' Trophy winner. Additionally, the Wings had won the Stanley Cup the season before – which this core group with the Lightning has yet to do. “It’s hard to pinpoint one thing (that went wrong),” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “We hurt ourselves in a lot of different fashions.” Callahan said it was hard to “put into words” what happened in this series. He said the Lightning were outplayed in every game. After the Blue Jackets grabbed a 4-3 lead in Game 4, the Lightning pulled their goalie and gave up three empty-netters, making the final score even more embarrassing. The Lightning were so dominant this season that it will be difficult to decide what to change moving forward. Opinion:Fighting in the NHL is brutish and outdated, and needs to be banned The reasons why the Blue Jackets won the series: a relentless forecheck, tight defensive play, an improved power play and strong goaltending. Bobrovsky had a .940 save percentage coming into Game 4 and stopped 30-of-33 in the finale. The Lightning lost it because their top players didn’t step up until Game 4. Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson only combined for two goals in the four games. That foursome scored 156 goals in the regular season. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn’t at his best. Defenseman Victor Hedman was hurt. The Lightning weren’t the same team we saw throughout the season. Foligno said he was “thrilled” that the Blue Jackets were able to wrap up the series for the fans’ sake. He said there was a “lot of broken hearts” in the dressing room and in the city during past playoff series. “I’m thrilled for the people who had to grind through this (playoff series wins drought),” Tortorella said. Tortorella has been in his share of big games, even winning the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in seven games in 2004. He thought the atmosphere in the building in this closeout game was “unbelievable.” Foligno laughed, saying: “I’m afraid for the rafters next series.”<doc-sep>
Following a historic year that saw the Lightning tie the NHL record of 62 wins in the regular season, Tampa Bay failed to win a single game in the playoffs. The Lightning were eliminated from the postseason on Tuesday night in Columbus, swept in four games by the Blue Jackets -- and in pretty emphatic fashion. After taking a 3-0 lead in Game 1, the Blue Jackets rallied back to win 4-3 and they never trailed again in the series. A dramatic 7-3 win on Tuesday closed out the series, making the Lightning the first team in NHL history to win the Presidents' Trophy and get swept in the first round. Tampa Bay's night got off to a rough start when 19-year-old Blue Jackets rookie Alexandre Texier scored his first career playoff goal just two-and-a-half minutes in to the game. Columbus' Pierre-Luc Dubois doubled the lead just over a minute later, once again forcing Tampa into a dire hole. The Lightning found some life later in the first period when Steven Stamkos finally scored his first goal of the series. That goal was made possible by an ugly turnover from Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones, who coughed up the puck along the boards. Stamkos was able to dangle around a couple of would-be defenders before putting a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky. After the teams headed into first intermission with Columbus leading 2-1, the Blue Jackets were able to double the lead once again in the middle frame. They claimed a 3-1 lead when Jones ripped a shot from from the point six-and-a-half minutes into the second period -- a gut punch for a Tampa team that looked like it was gaining some momentum. But the Lightning refused to lay down and they were able to climb back into the game thanks to a goal from Cedric Paquette and, later, their first power play opportunity since Game 2. Brayden Point was able to convert on that power play opportunity, tying the score at 3-3 as the second period neared a close. However, that equalizer held for less than a minute, as Blue Jackets forward Oliver Bjorkstrand quickly reclaimed the lead when he chipped in a loose, rolling rebound in the Tampa Bay crease. That goal proved to be the game-winner and series-clincher, as the 4-3 lead held until the final minutes of regulation when Columbus added three empty-netters. It's an incredibly disappointing finish to the season for the Lightning -- a team that was dominant almost all season long, finished with a record-tying 128 points in the standings and entered the playoffs as the odds-on betting favorites. Tampa Bay and coach Jon Cooper will now have to face questions as to why things fell apart so quickly and in such drastic fashion. As for the Blue Jackets, they write an incredible underdog story about a team that elected to aggressively go all-in at the trade deadline, only to struggle in the second half and just barely sneak into the playoffs as a wild card. But that shaky finish means nothing now, as they successfully managed to plunge an emphatic dagger into the league's best team to earn the first playoff series win in franchise history.