In Columbus, the Blues Jackets took a 3-0 lead over the visiting Boston Bruins after 40 minutes of play on Monday, added a fourth to lead early in the third period, and then held off the Bruins for a 5-2 win.
For Boston, it was their third straight loss.
“I don’t pin it on the goalies,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “I pin it on the lack of cohesion in front of the goalies.”
Columbus jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first on a strike by Dmitri Voronkov at 15:52.
Ivan Provorov pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 5:38 of the middle frame.
“Maybe the first five minutes we didn’t start the way we wanted to, but afterwards we played fast,” Provorov said. “We were physical. We were taking the game to them.”
Spencer Martin made 31 saves in the win.
“Our game was a complete game as a team,” Provorov said. “We were fast. We’re physical. We’re able to make plays. Our decision-making tonight was great. When we had room and time, we were able to make plays.”
The Blue Jackets moved to 7-12-4.
Yegor Chinakhov scored off a breakaway at 16:42 of the second to expand the lead to 3-0 after the second period..
Kirill Marchenko ballooned the lead to 4-0 at 4:51 of the third with a two skater advantage power play goal.
“It’s impressive, but I’m not surprised, let’s put it [that] way, that they came together today, the way they played,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “Everybody chipped in. Everybody had a good game. We played really well as a team, and our goalie was really good when we needed him to [be].
Boston dropped to 14-4-3.
“We got a little bit loose defensively, a little loose with the puck,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “Probably our biggest problem this year is we give up too many odd-man rushes. That was a big problem tonight. … We need to be much tighter all over the ice defensively.
“In this league, now especially, there’s so much parity. You see it tonight and every night — a last-place team can win any night, so you have to be dialed in on the details.”
Matthew Poitras scored for Boston at 8:24 to make it 4-1.
Justin Danforth replied for the Blue Jackets to make it 5-1 at 13:41 with an empty-net strike.
Boston’s John Beecher scored at 17:40 for the 5-2 final.
Jeremy Swayman got the start for the Bruins, he made 17 saves into the early minutes of the middle frame before getting the hook, trailing 2-0.
“Tried to get a spark there. We were a little bit dead there,” the Bruins’ Hampus Lindholm said.
Linus Ullmark made 18 saves in relief.
You must be logged in to post a comment.