Blue Jackets Snap 5 Game Skid, Beat Ducks In OT

Zach Werenski(10,11), Boone Jenner(5), and Adam Fantilli(12) powered the offense, as Jet Greaves stopped 24 shots to beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in overtime on a cold Tuesday night in Columbus. 

The Blue Jackets played a very good game on Tuesday night. They jumped out to a 3-1 lead with two quick goals in the second period, and once they did, CBJ fans everywhere were holding their breath. The Blue Jackets and leads just don't mix nowadays. 

A little over a minute after Jenner scored to make it 3-1, noted Jacket killer Mikael Granlund scored to draw within one. Jackson LaCombe was successful at banking the puck off of Jet Greaves' head to tie the game at 1`6:44 on the third. The Ducks tried several times throughout the night to do various bank shots, and it finally worked. Luckily for Columbus, they were able to hold on and send the game to OT. 

Adam Fantilli snapped the game winner past Ducks goalie Ville Husso with 1:28 left in the overtime period to pick up the team's 14th win. It's been a long 5 games in between wins for the Jackets. 

Fantilli on his OT winner: "I realized the guy that was on me had been out for a minute or so at that point, so I wanted to try him with speed and see if I could get around him. Once I did, I knew I had a one-on-one and just tried to shoot through a screen."

Zach Werenski on Fantilli's game-winner: "He can just beat goalies. A lot of guys can't do that. I feel like he's a special player that way, and I think once he really figures out that he can just shoot pucks past goalies, he's going to score a lot more goals."

Adam Fantilli was asked by the media if scoring on the Ducks meant anything extra because they passed on him in the draft: "That doesn't mean anything to me. I'm here to win with this franchise. I'm grateful to be here, I want to be here, and I want to win here."

Head Coach Dean Evason had this to say when asked about his level of concern about scoring and then giving up a goal soon after: "No concern. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Have a look at it. Have we tried to figure out what's going on? Have we looked for patterns? Have we looked analytically? Have we looked at personnel? Well, yeah, and we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to teach and try to do the right things. But at the end of the day, we haven't found any of those. So, we'll just keep going about our business."

CRAZY STAT: The Blue Jackets have killed off 46 straight Anaheim Ducks power plays. That spans 18 games total, with 10 of those at NWA. They're 24-for-24 on the PK at Nationwide against Anaheim in that stretch. 

Final Stats

Player Stats

• Zach Werenski scored two goals and had an assist in his 600th career NHL game. Per CBJ PR, Werenski got his fourth three-point effort of the season with two goals and an assist on the OT GWG to stretch his home points streak to 11 consecutive games since Oct. 29 (7-13-20). It is the second-longest home points streak in franchise history behind his own 22-game streak set last season from Nov. 1, 2024-Feb. 22, 2025 (14-27-41). Werenski, who scored his 10th of the season with his first goal, has notched double-digit goals in eight seasons and is tied with Washington's John Carlson for the most among active American defensemen. He skated in his 600th career game last night (124-296-420), surpassing Nick Foligno (599) for the fourth-most in franchise history. With his 2-1-3 performance, he improved his career mark against Anaheim to 8-5-13 in 15 career games with points in four-straight meetings (4-3-7).
• Boone Jenner scored his 5th goal of the season and picked up his 9th assist.
• Adam Fantilli scored his 12th goal of the season. This was his second overtime game-winning goal of the season and career. The goal marked his sixth career game-winning goal which is the second most among Blue Jackets players since making his debut in 2023-24, behind only Mathieu Olivier.
• Kent Johnson had two assists.
• Yegor Chinakhov recorded his 3rd assist.
• Brendan Gaunce tallied an assist.
• Ivan Provorov got his 8th assist.
• Cole Sillinger had 6 shots on goal.
• Jet Greaves stopped 24 of 27 Ducks shots.

Team Stats

• The Jackets' power play went 0/2.
• The Columbus PK stopped all 4 Anaheim man advantages.
• Columbus won 57.7% of the faceoffs - 30/52
• The Blue Jackets had 19 blocked shots.

Up Next: The Jackets are back at home to play the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. 

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