The Blue Jackets desperately needed a win in New York on Sunday, and they did that just that.

Adam Fantilli(19,20,21), Justin Danforth(7), Mathieu Olivier(13), Kent Johnson(21), and Dante Fabbro(5) scored the goals for Columbus, and Daniil Tarasov was excellent, stopping 32 of 35 Ranger shots in a 7-3 Blue Jackets win.

The Blue Jackets went into Madison Square Garden needing a win in regulation to keep the Rangers behind them. They did that on Sunday evening with a second-period explosion of goals. 

It wasn't always easy, though. Up 3-1 and on the power play, the Rangers scored two shorthanded goals in 42 seconds to tie the game at three. But then the CBJ would score two goals in the final three minutes of the second period to build a 5-3 lead. The Jackets didn't look back from that point on, scoring two more in the third and holding the Rangers scoreless for the duration. 

Adam Fantilli recorded his second hat trick of the season. His hat tricks have come under the league's brightest lights, with one in Toronto and one in New York City. It's safe to say he thrives on that kind of thing. Of all players drafted in 2023, no other player has scored more goals than Adam Fantilli this season. Elvis Merzļikins, who was on the bench when he scored his third goal, threw his hat onto the ice to celebrate. 

Zach Werenski, with his first-period assist, became the franchise leader in assists by any player. He now sits with 260 assists for his career. 

Dean Evason on last night's win: "We played hard, we played right. We played the way that the Columbus Blue Jackets play. When we do that, we're not gonna win every single time, but we're gonna give ourselves a chance, and that's what we did here tonight."

Columbus is now 31-24-8 (70 points) and sits in the first wild card spot. 

Final Stats

Player Stats

• Adam Fantilli scored his second hat trick of the season. Fantilli has 21 goals on the season and has points in 7 of his last 8 games.
• Mathieu Olivier scored his 13th goal of the season and had an assist.
• Dante Fabbro scored his 5th goal and has an assist.
• Justin Danforth scored his 7th of the season.
• Kent Johnson scored his 21st goal of the season. The goal was originally credited to Olivier.
• Zach Werenski had two assists and is now the Blue Jackets all-time assist leader, passing Rick Nash.
• Dmitri Voronkov had a pair of assists and was a plus-3.
• Four players tallied a single assist each.
• Luke Kunin had a fight in his CBJ debut.
• Daniil Tarasov stopped 32 of 35 NYR shots.

Team Stats

• The Blue Jackets went 0/1 on the power play.
• The Jackets PK stopped all four Ranger man advantages.
• Columbus won just 34% of the faceoffs.

What's Next: The Blue Jackets travel to New Jersey to play the Devils on Tuesday. 

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