In Columbus, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves. and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Blue Jackets, 6-4, on Thursday night.
The Lightning put up three goals before the Blue Jackets got on the board.
Tampa scored four goals in the first period.
Steve Stamkos, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman scored in the first period.
“It was huge to get that first goal,” Gourde said. “It’s hard to chase the game. It definitely was a key moment in the game.”
Michael Del Zotto cut the 3-0 lead down to 3-1.
Ryan McDonagh scored the first of his two goals on the night just before the end of the opening frame for a4-1 lead to Tampa.
“I’m sure, maybe it’s a little deflating for them,” McDonagh said. “It gave us some momentum going into the second period.”
Ross Colton pushed the lead to 5-1 early im the middle frame.
Columbus’ Jack Roslovic made it 5-2 late in the second, but McDonagh replied again to send game to a 6-2 heading to the third period.
Zach Werenski scored midway through the third period for Columbus, and Max Domi added a goal with seconds left on the game clock.
“I don’t think we played a bad game,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said. “We developed quite a bit on offense and I saw some really good things from certain players.”
Stamkos left the game in the third period with an apparent injury.
“If there’s anything, we’ll fill you in tomorrow, but not right now,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos, who left the game at 1:46 of the third period.
Korpisalo was given the hook in the first period after the Bolts had taken the 3-0 lead, he made three saves.
Elvis Merzlikins made 21 saves in relief.
“We’ve got to start better, honestly, and we just lose a couple of those odd-man rushes,” the Blue Jackets’ Vladislav Gavrikov said. “It’s impossible for us to start like that.”
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