The sweep of the NHL schedule from Monday night starts in Boston where the Columbus Blue Jackets got two goals from Boone Jenner and a strong special teams effort to defeat the Bruins, 6-4.
The Jackets went 2-for-3 on the power play and killed both penalties they faced.
“We talked about that, we needed to start winning some special teams battles in the games,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “I thought we did a good job of killing penalties tonight and just kept it simple. And also 5-on-5, I thought we played a really good game, managed the puck, made some good plays, made some good decisions in the neutral zone. And I thought everybody contributed.”
Brandon Saad, William Karlsson, Scott Hartnell and Dalton Prout added goals for Columbus.
Joonas Korpisalo rebounded from a poor effort in a loss to the Buffalo Sabres to make 26 saves for the win.
“I felt good,” Korpisalo said. “I felt good in that last game, too, but at least no goals from the other end [laughs]. I don’t know, three tips today. I don’t know if the last one hit someone but it was kind of a hard game. I had a lot of shots and they just tried to get pucks to the net and redirect it, but four goals today and we won so probably better, but we got the win today so I’m happy for that.”
The Bruins got two goals each from Matt Beleskey and Loui Eriksson.
“Well you know if you look at the game I think defensively we failed tonight to do a good job there,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “When you give up five goals – not counting the empty-netter – two of them 4-on-3s, I thought we weren’t really good in our own end tonight, losing some battles and that kind of stuff. Defensively we need to be better and we scored enough to win, but we didn’t do a good job there.”
Jonas Gustavsson made 29 saves in the loss.
“Yeah, it’s always a big win coming in here,” Columbus forward Matt Calvert said. “You know they are an established team at home and it’s a big win, especially scoring six in their barn. I thought we came all night and I thought all four lines were going, and I think that’s the most important part for us towards coming in here.”
In Montreal, the Nashville Predators’ Craig Smith scored in the skills competition to give the Preds a 2-1 win over the Canadiens.
Smith had missed a great opportunity in the overtime session and saw his goal as redemption.
“It was good to get a chance at it quick again and kind of erase it,” Smith said.
Pekka Rinne made 28 saves in win over Montreal – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Pekka Rinne stopped all three Habs shooters in the shootout and made 28 saves for the win.
“Some overtimes we haven’t played very well,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “Tonight I thought we played it a lot better and were more patient and set it up for a couple of shots that we liked, and that was one of them, and it didn’t go for us, but some of the times we have done some good things and haven’t capitalized and it goes right back the other way and scores.
“So I thought we did a better job tonight just being patient and waiting for our opportunities and trying to control the overtime, trying to control the puck, so that was good. It was good the guys were able to bury it in the shootout.”
Brendan Gallagher scored the lone Canadiens goal in the first period.
Mike Condon took the loss for Montreal on 29 saves.
“Condon made a lot of saves to keep us in there tight,” Gallagher said. “It’s just a case of him battling and he did a good job.”
In St Louis, the San Jose Sharks’ Joe Thornton continued his recent scoring streak with two goals and four points in a 6-3 win over the Blues Monday night.
“It was good,” Thornton said. “We got off to a quick start and obviously getting that five minutes was huge and scoring the 5-on-3 was huge. It’s always nice playing with the lead and we did a good job with it tonight.”
Martin Jones made 25 saves for the win.
Martin Jones made 25 saves in win over Blues – File photo by Jack Lima
Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl also scored two goals each in the win.
The Blues lost Brian Elliott to an injury in the first period and was replaced by Jake Allen.
“It’s getting a bit old, you can say that to say the least,” Allen said of the injuries. “ But we really have no control over it. It’s unfortunate that we don’t. I’m not sure exactly what the prognosis is with Brian, but hopefully it’s very minor and nothing too crazy. It’s unfortunate. It’s another body we’ve lost, probably some of the most man-games in the League, but we’ve battled through it and we have to find a way on Thursday.”
It was yet another injury for St Louis this season.
“Seems to be order of the day (and) of the year, eh? We’ll have to sort out,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We’ve got a day off [Tuesday]. We’ll sort out what we’re going to do. We’ll have further evaluation on Brian. If Brian can’t go, then it’s Jake’s turn now.”
Vladimir Tarasenko, David Backes and Jay Bouwmeester scored for the Blues.
“I liked our game, even prior to [the power-play goals],” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we came out ready to play and were carrying the play. For sure, I think that’s the ultimate retribution for a hit like that is to score two or three power-play goals and that decision basically cost them the game.”
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