In Washington, DC, The Columbus Blue Jackets’ Boone Jenner scored with less than a minute left in regulation to give them a 5-4 win over the Capitals on Tuesday night. 
“We were on our heels a little bit. They were pushing and we just stuck with it,” Jenner said. “Gus got to the rebound quick and made a nice play to me, and I just tried to finish it.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 29 saves in the Jackets win.
Patrik Laine hit for a pair of goals for Columbus.
“We found a way multiple times today,” Laine said.
Adam Boqvist and Trey Fix-Wolansky added strikes for Columbus.
“Coaches were telling me all night to shoot, so I shot the puck and I kind of heard the crowd roar a little bit, so I knew the puck was behind him,” Fix-Wolansky said. “I tried just going to the net and I saw it go in, and it was probably the most excitement I’ve ever had in my life.”
The Capitals dropped to 25-14-9.
“Everyone’s a little fatigued over playing a lot of games, but it’s real important to get together as a group and really play for each other,” Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom said. “The only one that’s going to turn this around is us players. We’ve just got to keep grinding and come together as a team and find our identity.”
The Blue Jackets improved to 21-22-1.
Nic Dowd, Garnet Hathaway, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for the Caps.
“Special teams hurt us, obviously. I actually thought we played really well 5-on-5,” Dowd said. “They had a couple chances early where they hit the post, but we weren’t giving them much and we had a 2-0 lead again in our building, and that’s a really good spot to be in.”
Tom Wilson also scored for Washington.
Pheonix Copley got the start for the Caps and yielded four goals, he made 15 saves before getting the hook.
“We just have to find a way to play consistent 60-minute games,” the Capitals’ Nick Jensen said. “We have to learn to win games 1-0, 2-1, stuff like that. It can’t be 4-4 run-and-gun style games. That’s not winning hockey in the long run in my opinion.”
Ilya Samsonov made six saves in relief.
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