Bjorkstrand Tallies Twice, Blue Jackets Beat the Canadiens 6-2 In A Massive Win With Playoff Implications

By Jacob Nitzberg on March 28, 2019 at 9:40 pm
Feb 18, 2019; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (28) against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Nationwide Arena.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
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What a win for the Blue Jackets tonight, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 in the biggest game of the season thus far.

The Canadiens went ahead early on a goal from defenseman Brett Kulak at just 1:15 of the first period, and maintained that lead throughout the entirety of the first 20 minutes.

  1 2 3 F
BLUE JACKETS 0 3 3 6
CANADIENS 1 1 0 2

Blue Jackets defensemen David Savard tied it at one early in the second period, taking advantage of a poor line change from the Canadiens. It was Savard's 7th goal this season.

It became 2-1 Canadiens roughly seven minutes later, with Jeff Petry scoring a 4-on-4 goal to give Montreal the advantage.

Later in the second period, Oliver Bjorkstrand, who can't stop scoring, tied it at two on a redirection of a Seth Jones shot. The Danish winger registered his 18th goal of the year, and wasn't done.

The Blue Jackets weren't done in the second. For his 27th goal of the year, Artemi Panarin finished off the three-goal period with a one-time finish on a nice feed from Matt Duchene.

In the third period, the Blue Jackets continued their aggressive play, and it continued to pay off. Riley Nash scored at 2:59 of the period off of a rebound from his own shot to make it 4-2, Columbus. It was only Nash's second goal of the 2018-19 campaign.

Bjorkstrand then scored again for his 19th of the year to make it 5-2 Blue Jackets, off of a savvy feed from Dean Kukan.

Brandon Dubinsky added the icing on the cake late in the third period with an empty-netter to make it 6-2 Columbus, tallying his 6th goal this season.

Sergei Bobrovsky saved 26 of 28 shots, and the Blue Jackets got another huge two points tonight.

Injury Update

Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray is still out with an undisclosed upper-body injury.

Next Up

The Blue Jackets will travel to Nashville to take on the Predators on Saturday night. The puck will drop at 8:00pm ET.

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