In Columbus, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning had a chance to settle some of the playoff scenarios on Thursday. A win and they would clinch third in the Atlantic Division.
Instead, they lost to the Blue Jackets, 5-2, as the Boston Bruins were climbing to within one point of them with a 5-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“We didn’t play good enough,” Tampa Bay’s Pat Maroon said. “We’ve got to be better. We’re fighting for who we’re playing, but it doesn’t matter.
“We need all the points we can get. If you move on in the playoffs you try to get that home-ice advantage the best you can.”
Tampa dropped to 50-23-8.
“We’ve got some extremely important games coming up here and you want to be feeling a little bit better about your game than the feeling we leave with tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Give Columbus credit. They’ve got a bunch of new guys. They came out and they tried and they got rewarded for it. We tiptoed around the game and we paid for it. But we have to be better than this, there’s no doubt about that.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 25 saves in the Blue Jackets win.
Nikita Kucherov and Corey Perry were the Tampa strikers.
Jakub Voracek gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead, Kucherov tied it, 1-1.
“Does not surprise me, the effort,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “This is what I expected from this group. They dig in. We have done it all year. We said we were going to play right to the end, and they have been.”
Cole Sillinger and Jack Roslovic gave the Jackets a 3-1 lead.
“It’s good for all of our young guys to get a taste and see where you need to be against a good team like that,” Sillinger said. “A lot of guys stepped up.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand extended the Blue Jackets’ advantage to 4-1.
Columbus’ Andrew Peeke hit an empty-net goal for the 5-2 final.
Brian Elliott made 30 saves in the Lightning loss.
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