Columbus Can't Find A Way To Solve Vasilevskiy In Time, Fall To Lightning.
It just wasn't meant to be for the Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy held them in check just long enough to hold on for the win. Boone Jenner fueled a furious comeback for the Blue Jackets. Jenner would score his 14th goal at 12:22, and then his 15th while on the power play with 4:10 left to play. Columbus would pull Merzlikins and get several chances to tie it, but Vasilevskiy was stone cold on this night. Tampa would score an empty net goal with 48 seconds left to seal it for the Lightning.
The overall consensus is that the Jackets didn't play a terrible game. But the PK let them down twice, and that's what did them in.
After the game, HC Pascal Vincent said that forward Yegor Chinakhov suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and most likely wouldn't play their next game on Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators.
Final Stats
CBJ AppPlayer Notes
- Boone Jenner scored his 14th and 15th goals of the season. He now has 15-5-20.
- Johnny Gaudreau tallied two assists against Tampa, giving him a stat line of 7-27-34 on the season. He also led all forwards in time on ice.
- Zach Werenski notched his 28th assist on the year, giving him 29 points. He also has points in 4 of the 5 games since he came back from injury. He also led all CBJ players with 26 minutes of time on ice.
- Elvis Merzlikins stopped 33 of 36 shots from Tampa.
Team Notes
- The Jackets fell to 12-14-6 in their last 32 games.
- The CBJ defense has 19-94-113 in 51 games this season, and has 76 points in the last 35 games.
What's Next - The Jackets will travel to Ottawa to face the Senators on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
More From THN Columbus
Join Jason Newland's Columbus Blue Jacket page on Bunches, a new app that connects sports fans. Also, you can watch a new YouTube game show about the Blue Jackets, Around the Fifth Line.