PHN’s Best Shots of the Game: Jackets draw 4-1 win over Vegas

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Blue Jackets are the midst of a fight for the playoffs and neither their positioning or berth are guaranteed.

On Tuesday night, they faced the Vegas Golden Knights in the latest must win match.

For this one, the Jackets took a 4-1 decision from the Knights to stay within three points of the first wild card spot and stay two points clear of the Florida Panthers.

Photo By: Brianna O’Mara

Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Zach Werenski, and Ian Cole provide the offense for Columbus.

“Slumps happen to everyone,” Werenski said after seemingly broken his long scoring drought. “Good players find a way to get out of them. Obviously, mine was pretty long. I’m happy to be out of it.”

Joonas Korpisalo made 37 saves for the win.

“For the team, it’s huge. Every point matters,” Korpisalo said. “It’s been tough for me the past four weeks. Finally, I can help the team out.

“They had [19] shots in the first. The boys did a good job on the rebounds. I got a good flow in the first period and it was easy to build off that.”

The Jackets improved to 34-28-5.

“The team likes playing in front of him (Korpisalo). There were a few struggles here and there but he was solid from the get-go. He not only played good, but he looked good too. He looked like, ‘I’m playing well tonight,” ” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said after the win.

Erik Haula scored the lone Vegas goal.

“There’s a lot of good things we did on the offensive side of the puck,” Haula said. “Defensively, we need to make it harder.”

Vegas dropped to 42-19-5 with the loss and are just 1-3-1 in their last five.

“Their defensemen were really spreading the zone,” Golden Knights forward David Perron said. “It gives them a little more room. It was tough for our guys to defend.

“Overall, I thought we got better and better as the game went on. We just couldn’t get that second goal.”

[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Blue Jackets highlights]

Marc-Andre Fleury made 17 saves in taking the loss.

“We had real good moments in the game and there were other moments we didn’t play so well. I thought we played well enough to win the hockey game. Most times you play that game you’re going to win that game,” Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said after the loss.

Photo By: Brianna O’Mara

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