The Blue Jackets record now stands at 18-18-7 with 43 points.
Boone Jenner(7), Kent Johnson(4), and Kirill Marchenko(16) scored the goals for the Blue Jackets, and Jet Greaves made 21 saves in a 5-3 CBJ loss to Vegas. It's the Jackets third straight loss.
The Jackets started hot, but once Vegas got going, they absolutely took it to the Blue Jackets at T-Mobile Arena. It was actually looking very positive for the first 10 minutes of the first, but after that, it was all VGK.
The Golden Knights heavy guns showed up big time too. Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, and Jack Eichel all had multi-point nights, as did Tomas Hertl.
First Period - SOG 8-7 CBJ - Blue Jackets Goals - Jenner, Johnson
The first eight minutes of the game was a lot of back-and-forth between the two teams, with no penalties, few shots, and hardly any scoring chances.
Boone Jenner decided to change that when the Blue Jackets took advantage of an injured Carter Hart. With Hart struggling to get to his feet after sustaining the injury, Zach Werenski let loose a shot that was tipped by Jenner to give the CBJ a 1-0 lead.
Carter would leave the ice and be replace by Akira Schmid with 11:36 to play. Vegas fans were not happy about the play being able to continue, but they never were able to get possession of the puck to stop the play.
At the 10:41 mark, Kent Johnson scored on the rush to make it 2-0 Columbus. Sean Monahan gave him a beautiful pass for his 4th goal.
In typical Vegas fashion, they would score under two minutes later to cut the lead in half. At 12:20 of the period, Reilly Smith scored his 7th goal to make it 2-1. He let a bomb loose from the point to beat Jet Greaves.
Second Period - SOG 8-5 VGK - No CBJ Goals
5:19 into the second period, Vegas scored to make it 2-2 while they had a delayed penalty. Reilly Smith scored his second goal of the game assisted by who else but Mark Stone and Mitch Marner.
Another multi-goal lead blown by the Blue Jackets.
At 13:06, the Blue Jackets completed their daily collapse by allowing Jack Eichel to score his 13th goal of the season. The secret must have gotten out about Jet Greaves, as all three goals he's given up to that point were high on the young goalie.
Mathieu Olivier took a penalty for hooking Braeden Bowman with under two minutes to play. Mark Stone wasted no time putting the VGK up 4-2, scoring in his 6th straight game. There was only 1:17 left in the second period, but it felt like that was the nail in the Jackets coffin with an entire period to play.
Third Period
Brendan Gaunce would give the Golden Knights another power play when he flipped the puck over the glass for a souvenir. Luckily, the Blue Jackets were able to kill the penalty off, but not before Jet Greaves had to make 5 saves to keep the score 4-2.
With 12 minutes to go in the third period, Vegas was outshooting the CBJ 8-1. The Knights are completely steamrolling the Columbus at this point.
Kirill Marchenko scored his 16th goal of the season with 5:32 left in the game to bring the Jackets to within a single goal. Marchenko was able to sneak in behind the defense and bury one past Schmid.
With 3:46 to go though, Brett Howden beat Greaves to get the two-goal lead right back, essentially ending the game.
Final Stats
Player Stats
- Boone Jenner scored his 7th goal and picked up his 14th assist.
- Kent Johnson scored his 4th goal.
- Kirill Marchenko scored his 16th goal.
- Zach Werenski recorded his 30th assist on the season.
- Sean Monahan had two assists. He won 10/11 faceoffs he took.
- Ivan Provorov recorded an assist, his 12th.
- Adam Fantilli picked up his 15th assist. He also won 10/17 faceoffs.
Team Stats
- The Jackets power play went 0/1.
- The Columbus PK stopped 1 of 2 Vegas power plays.
- Columbus won 63.2% of the faceoffs - 36/57
- The Blue Jackets had 28 hits.
Up Next: Columbus travels to Colorado to take on the league's best in the Avalanche.
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