The Columbus Blue Jackets never trailed as they logged a three-goal first period and netted a pair of short-handed tallies en route to a 5-1 win over the host Boston Bruins on Monday.
Dmitri Voronkov, Mathieu Olivier and James van Riemsdyk built the Blue Jackets’ 3-0 lead at the first intermission before Justin Danforth and Yegor Chinakhov found the back of the net in the final period.
Sean Monahan handed out two assists and Elvis Merzlikins was busy making 11 of his 28 saves in the first for Columbus, which had lost seven of its previous eight games (1-6-1) but has won two of three.
Charlie Coyle scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 24 shots for Boston, which has lost three straight (0-2-1).
The Bruins went 1-for-6 on the power play.
A wild sequence resulted in Columbus scoring first at 5:15. After Boston could not register a shot on Merzlikins — who lost his stick — Dante Fabbro and Monahan broke the puck out to Voronkov, whose backhand shot slid past Swayman as he was hauled down to the ice.
Olivier doubled the lead when he scored short-handed at 10:39, driving down the right wing and cutting to the net front to slot home a tight backhander at the crease.
While Columbus outshot Boston 12-11, Merzlikins denied both Charlie McAvoy and Georgii Merkulov on point-blank chances off turnovers over the final seven minutes.
Former Bruin van Riemdsyk made it 3-0 with 31.5 seconds left in the first, slamming home the rebound of Zach Werenski’s shot from the left circle just past an outstretched Swayman’s skate.
The Bruins broke an 0-for-20 power-play drought at the 14:30 mark of the second. Coyle took Justin Brazeau’s pass from behind the goal line and placed a perfect wrist shot over the glove of Merzlikins from the left circle.
Danforth netted the visitors’ second man-down tally of the night when Cole Sillinger made the setup off a turnover and a rush down the wing at 7:19 of the third.
At 14:10, Monahan came out of the left corner and dished to Chinakhov for a quick release to round out the scoring.
–Field Level Media
