Blue Jackets defuse Lightning

In Tampa, the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets’ Elvis Merzlikins made 37 saves in a 3-1 win over the Lightning on Monday night.

“These kinds of games are going to help me go where I want to go, which is up,” Merzlikins said. “We played much better. Like I said before, I think the great thing with the day off after the bad weekend was that we could clear our mind and change our mentality right away. But this is only one game. We haven’t won anything. We have to keep focusing.”

Oliver Bjorkstrand, David Savard scored in the middle frame to give Columbus a 2-0 lead.

“It’s a big two points,” Bjorkstrand said. “Honestly, we’re in a situation where we’ve got to win. We had more of a mindset of winning battles and simplifying things a little bit.”

Mathieu Joseph cut the lead to 2-1 with the Bolts’ only goal of the game.

“If there was one issue to our game it’s that we let the goalie see everything,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “We were doing a lot of good things. The process was fine, we had our legs. We just didn’t take eyes away. We had our looks, just tonight they didn’t go in.”

The Blue Jackets improved to 14-15-8.

“We were better, We’re working on a way to play that will get us into some sort of identity,” Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella said. “I think we took a step in the right direction. We struggled at times as far as some turnovers and allowing them to get on the attack. Elvis made some big saves for us. I think we did a pretty good job around the net after shots were taken. … So yeah, we found a way to win a hockey game.”

Cam Atkinson iced the game for Columbus with an empty-net goal in the third period.

“Definitely felt good, it’s been a little while,” Savard said. “It is what it is, and it was a big goal at the time. The guys were rooting for me to get one soon. It was a good feeling and a big goal to go up 2-0. It was a big win and we’ve got to do it again Thursday.”

Curtis McElhinney made 18 saves in the loss.

“It was a little better, it probably could’ve went our way tonight,” Tampa’s Steven Stamkos said. “Their goaltender played well. I thought he saw most of the shots and made the saves when he had to. We’ll have to continue to work on our game and get better so we can bounce out of this little three-game skid.”