In Columbus, the Blue Jackets’ Jack Roslovic hit a double on Wednesday night in a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. 
“When it’s going it’s going,” Roslovic said. “You take moments like this and try to hold onto them.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 20 saves in the Columbus win.
The Blue Jackets moved to 35-33-6.
Ryan Poehling was the lone striker for the Habs.
“I think you see it in spurts when we’re playing good, it’s fun, it’s hard to play against, we’re fast,” Poehling said. “But we just need to work on being consistently that good. When you’re that good for a bit, you know you have it in you, so we just need to work on keeping that consistency up.”
Roslovic scored his goals in the first and second periods for a 2-0 advantage for Columbus.
Montreal dropped to 20-43-11.
“I think this team is mentally tired. I get it,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “They’ve had a tough season and then coaches change and I’m asking a lot of them, implementing so many things. So, there’s a lot going on for them in terms of handling all that mentally.”
Patrik Laine pushed the lead to 3-0 in the middle frame.
“It felt pretty good,” Laine said. “We were moving the puck pretty good. Jack tried to go back door to [Gustav Nyquist]. It came off the back wall pretty hot, kind of a tight angle. I’m just happy it went in.”
Columbus’ Cole Sillinger and Emil Bemstrom scored in the third period for the 5-1 final.
“There was a sense of relief when I saw it go in,” Columbus’ Nick Blankenburg said. “I’m kind of at a loss of words. It’s a childhood dream to play your first game in the NHL, let alone get your first point. As the game went on, I felt like I had a little bit more confidence with the puck.”
Sam Montembeault made 26 saves in the Montreal loss.
“We’ve got to perform. Tonight, we didn’t do that,” the Canadiens’ Joel Edmundson said. “Give them credit; they played well, but it should have been a closer game.”
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