Columbus acquired two of a possible four points over the weekend against their western conference foes.
On Friday night, they fell victim to the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3.
Winnipeg opened the scoring with two goals in less than 5 minutes. Dominic Toninato got his 6th; Brendan Dillon and Zach Sanford got the helpers. Kyle Connor’s 41st was supported by Toninato’s second point of the period.
Adam Boqvist’s power play move broke the shutout with his 11th goal this season; forwards Gustav Nyquist and Jack Roslovic has the helpers.
Brendan Gaunce’s 4th of the year evened the scoring; Emil Bemstrom had the helper.
Josh Morrrissey reacquired the lead with his 11th. Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler had the helpers.
Oliver Bjorkstrand found the tie with his 23rd in the season; Zach Werenski and Jakub Voracek had the assists.
Nikolaj Ehlers got the OT winner with his 20th; Connor got his 41st apple.
Eric Comrie stopped 33 of 36 shots for an 0.917 save percentage.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 29 of 33 for an 0.879 save percentage.
CBJ Three Stars Of the Game
1. Oliver Bjorkstrand— goal (23)
2. Adam Boqvist— PPG (11)
3. Brendan Gaunce— goal (4)
Second, the debut of Marc-Andre Fleury was a successful 3-2 OT victory for the Minnesota Wild.
Kirill Kaprizov got both regulation goals for Minnesota. The first was in the first period for his 34th; Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek had the helpers.
Jake Bean’s fifth was a deflection on the Flower. Jack Roslovic and Dean Kukan had the assists. Jakub Voracek’s fifth evened the game; Vladislav Gavrikov and Patrik Laine had the final apples.
Kaprizov’s 35th was assisted by Jonas Brodin and Kevin Fiala.
Captain Jared Spurgeon had the game winner; Kevin Fiala and Frederik Gaudreau got the assists.
Fleury saved 23 of 25 shots for a 0.920 save percentage.
Merzlikins saved 35 of 38 for a 0.921 save percentage.
CBJ Three Stars of the Game
1. Elvis Merzlikins— OTL; 0.921 SV%; 35SV
2. Jakub Voracek— goal (5)
3. Jake Bean— goal (5)
Columbus is in their final month of hockey until the fall, with tonight’s game and the last game of March with the New York Islanders. The Isles are 4 points behind the Jackets with 2 games in-hand. They could finish ahead of Columbus come season’s end. Even without goalie Ilya Sorokin tonight for New York, and defenseman Zach Werenski for Columbus, this will be a tight game.
Projected Lineups
New York Islanders
Andres Lee—Brock Nelson—Anthony Beauvillier Josh Bailey—Jean-Gabriel Pageau—Kyle Palmieri Zach Parise—Matt Barzal—Oliver Wahlstrom Matt Martin—Casey Cizikas—Ross Johnston
Adam Pelech—Ryan Pulock Zdeno Chara—Noah Dobson Andy Greene—Grant Hutton
Semyon Varlamov Cory Schneider
Scratched— Kieffer Bellows Injured— Scott Mayfield, Sebastian Aho, Ilya Sorokin
Columbus Blue Jackets
Gustav Nyquist—Jack Roslovic—Patrik Laine Jakub Voracek—Cole Sillinger—Oliver Bjorkstrand Yegor Chinakov—Brendan Gaunce—Emil Bemstrom Eric Robinson—Sean Kuraly—Justin Danforth
Vladislav Gavrikov—Andrew Peeke Jake Bean— Adam Boqvist Dean Kukan—Gabriel Carlsson
Elvis Merzlikins Jean-Francois Berube
Scratched—Gavin Bayreuther Injured— Joonas Korpisalo, Nathan Gerbe, Alexandre Texier, Daniil Tarasov, Boone Jenner, Zach Werenski
Players to Watch
NYI — Brock Nelson — the center has 7 points in his last 5 games.
Columbus— Patrik Laine — the Fin has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 5 games.