The Blue Jackets record now sits at 33-21-10 with 76 points. They're currently 4th in the Metro, 9th in the East, and 12th in the NHL. They're also two points out of the first wild, 3 points out of the second wild card, and 3 points out of third in the Metro.
Ivan Provorov (8th), Conor Garland (10, 11-PPG), Kirill Marchenko (23-PPG-GWG), and Dante Fabbro (5-ENG) scored the goals for Columbus in a 5-2 upset win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. Elvis Merzlikins didn't get a lot of work in this game due to the defensive game played by the CBJ, but he made 16 saves on 18 Bolts shots.
The Blue Jackets won a huge game in Tampa, which is a place they never win. Going into this game, they were 0-8-1 in their last 9 games against the juggernaut Lightning. They needed this game, and they got it.
But they didn't just play a game and win against the Lightning; they played an amazing road game, in the second half of a back-to-back after losing yesterday at home against LA.
With eight minutes left in the second period, the Lightning had all of 5 shots on goal. They finished with 8 in the period, but 5 of those 8 shots were due to the CBJ taking back-to-back penalties, giving Tampa two power plays. They survived those two penalties and gave up only one more goal in the game, which came just two minutes after the penalties.
The CBJ finished this game out and would get the two points they desperately needed to stay in the playoff race.
CBJ newcomer Conor Garland continues his hot start with his new team. After scoring twice on Monday against LA, he also scored twice on Tuesday. Per CBJ PR, he's the first player to score four goals in his first three games with the team.
Zach Werenski, who had a really good bounce-back game, had this to say: "We feel like when we play like that, we can play with anyone and beat anyone."
Final Stats
CBJ APPPlayer Stats
- Ivan Provorov scored his 8th goal of the season and was a plus-1.
- Conor scored his 10th and 11th goals and had 6 shots.
- Kirill Marchenko scored his 24th goal and played a team high 5:42 on the power play.
- Dante Fabbro scored his 5th goal of the season.
- Zach Werenski recorded his 47th and 48th assists.
- Denton Mateychuk picked up his 17th assist.
- Charlie Coyle recorded his 35th assist.
- Sean Monahan has 2 assists on the night.
- Kent Johnson got his 14th assist.
- Adam Fantilli tallied his 27th assist. He now has points in 7 of his last 9 games.
- Elvis Merzlikins picked up his 2nd assist of the season and stopped 16 of 18 Tampa shots.
Team Stats
- The Jackets went 2/4 on the power play.
- The Columbus PK stopped all three Lightning man advantages.
- Columbus won 43.6% of the faceoffs - 24/55
- The Blue Jackets had 21 hits and 15 blocks.
Next Up For Columbus: The Blue Jackets continue the road trip in Florida against the Panthers on Thursday.
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