Sean Monahan had a goal and an assist for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who extended their point streak to six games with a 6-3 win against the host Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Damon Severson tallied three assists while Cole Sillinger and Zach Werenski each had two for the Blue Jackets, who are 5-0-1 in their past six games. Elvis Merzlikins made 28 saves.
Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist and Petr Mrazek made 30 saves for the Blackhawks, who have lost six of eight.
Bedard connected on the power play to give Chicago a 1-0 lead at 2:59 of the first period. Ryan Donato collected a rebound in the slot and sent a short feed to Bedard in the left circle.
Ivan Provorov tied it 1-1 at 4:27. Monahan dropped a short pass back to Provorov, who snapped it from above the right circle blocker side past a screened Mrazek at 4:27.
Kent Johnson put Columbus in front 2-1 at 11:23 with a one-timer from the right circle that beat Mrazek short side.
The Blackhawks’ power play converted again to tie it 2-2 three minutes into the second period, with Craig Smith in the slot to redirect Taylor Hall’s shot inside the right post.
Chicago had a chance to pull ahead less than 30 seconds later, but Merzlikins stretched for a toe save on Lukas Reichel’s shot off the rush.
The Blue Jackets regained the lead soon after, when Monahan fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot under Mrazek’s right arm at 4:50 to make it 3-2.
Dante Fabbro used Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez as a screen when he snapped a shot from the right circle off the rush to extend it to 4-2 at 3:08 of the third period.
Nick Foligno narrowed it to 4-3 at 8:08 with another power-play goal, tipping Teuvo Teravainen’s shot-pass on the doorstep on a 5-on-3 advantage.
Kirill Marchenko intercepted Wyatt Kaiser’s clearing attempt and fired it from high in the right circle into the far side to make it 5-3 Columbus at 10:52.
Dmitri Voronkov scored an empty-net goal from his own end at 18:31 for the 6-3 final.
–Field Level Media
