In Columbus, Alex Nylander hit for his first career NHL hat trick on Monday in a 6-3 win for the Blue Jackets over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.
Nylander was picked up from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade in later February.
“This is a really good spot for me,” Nylander said. “They gave me a great opportunity here, so I’m really happy.”
He scored twice in the third period. He picked up his double at 3:23 to give the Blue Jackets a 4-2 lead.
“We know they’re the defending champs and we had to play hard, fast,” Nylander said. “We’ve got a fast team, and that’s what we did throughout the whole game.”
Nylander collected his hats at 18:49 of the third for the 6-3 final count on the scoreboard..
“I wasn’t thinking about that until the end,” Nylander said.
Daniil Tarasov made 37 saves in the Columbus win
The Blue Jackets moved to 21-30-10.
“The magic happens when you start having confidence in your teammates, and that’s what we’ve been seeing recently,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “I’ve been saying that for some time now. They’re starting to believe in each other and playing for each other, and that changes everything.
“When you’re rewarded with a win, it’s even better because it reinforces good habits.”
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead when Justin Danforth, scored at 6:16 of the opening stanza.
Nylander hit for his first of the night to push the Columbus lead to 2-0 at 13:11.
Vegas replied with a strike by Mason Morelli at 17:19, scoring off a wraparound to make it 2-1.
“We always seem to be down in games and have to chase it,” Vegas’ William Karlsson said. “We battled back to tie it, then they get the next one and we have chase it again. That’s one of the common denominators.”
Karlsson scored at 18:01 to send the game to the middle frame tied, 2-2. .
The Golden Knights dropped to 33-22-7 off their third straight loss.
“I see a team right now that is losing a lot of puck battles that we usually win,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That comes from within. Compete comes from the individual. We’ve got to want it, and that comes from within. We’ve got to find it.
“We’ve got to want it. We don’t want it right now. (It’s) very evident in our game.”
In the middle frame, Columbus took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Erik Gudbranson at 17:21.
After Nylander pushed the Columbus lead to 4-2 in the third, Vegas’ Chandler Stephenson scored midway through the period to trim the deficit to 4-3.
“They wanted the puck more than we did,” Cassidy said. “Didn’t manage it. It’s going to happen sometimes, but our will right now to compete on pucks just isn’t good enough to win consistently in this league, and that’s exactly what we’re going through.”
Yegor Chinakhov scored 64 seconds later to stretch the Blue Jackets lead to 5-3.
Adin Hill made 27 saves in the loss.
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