Sean Kuraly's Two Goals Powers the Blue Jackets Past Montreal 6-4

By Coby Maeir on November 17, 2022 at 9:52 pm
Boone Jenner
Gaelen Morse-USA TODAY Sports
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The fourth line put its stamp on this game.

Behind 2-1--3 from Sean Kuraly, the Blue Jackets extended their win streak to two and point streak to four in a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Nationwide Arena Thursday night. 

1st Period

The Canadiens had a flurry of shots just over seven minutes into the game, but Joonas Korpisalo stopped all three shots to keep the game scoreless.

Cole Sillinger opened the scoring 7:28 into the game on a long wrist shot that bounced off goaltender Sam Montembeault's stick before deflecting off Jordan Harris and into the net.

  1 2 3 F
BLUE JACKETS 2 0 4 6
MTL CANADIENS 0 2 2 4

Yegor Chinakov had a chance to double Columbus' lead after intercepting a pass from David Savard and racing down the left-wing side but was denied by Montembeault with 5:48 left in the period. 

Two minutes later, Gus Nyquist gave Columbus a 2-0 lead after Gavin Bayreuther found him wide-open on the right doorstep.

 

Boone Jenner nearly extended the Jackets' lead on a breakaway but he hit the crossbar with 1:51 to go.

The Jackets took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission with both teams posting 11 shots on goal.

2nd Period

The Canadiens nearly cut the lead in half with 12:58 to go as Christian Dvorak hit the crossbar from the right circle. 

Montreal got on the board with 6:25 remaining in the middle frame after Harris beat Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the left circle after several failed clearing attempts by the Blue Jackets. 

With under three seconds to play in the second period, Josh Anderson tied the game with a power-play goal. Montreal won the face-off and Anderson took the puck and fired a wrist shot from between the hashes that snuck through Korpisalo.

Before the teams headed to the second intermission, Montreal's Arber Xhekaj and Columbus' Mathieu Olivier dropped the gloves.

3rd Period

Korpisalo had to make two big saves within the first three minutes of the third period. First on Evgenii Dadonov from the slot and then on Sean Monahan from the left-wing side on a two-on-one. 

Jenner scored his third goal in his last two games after he finished off a beautiful tic-tac-toe sequence that started with Johnny Gaudreau in the left circle, passing to Kent Johnson in the right circle, and finally passing to Jenner between the hashes to give the Jackets a 3-2 lead with 13:24 to go in regulation.

With 10:33 left, Brendan Gallagher tied the game after he was left wide open at the right doorstep and dispatched the puck into a wide-open net. 

Just 32 seconds later, Kuraly gave the Jackets the lead back with a great solo rush that split two Montreal defensemen in the process. 

 

Exactly one minute later, Olivier fired a slapshot from the right circle into the top-left corner of the net off a face-off play to double Columbus' lead.

Just eight seconds after Olivier's goal, Nick Suzuki cut the lead in half after he shot the puck off Korpisalo and in from below the goal line.

There were four goals scored in 110 seconds.

Kuraly put the icing on the cake when he scored an empty-net goal with 2:13 to play. 

The Jackets hung on to win 6-4 and improved to 6-9-1 on the season. They are 3-0-1 in their last four games.

Stats

  • Shots on Goal: MTL 42-29 CBJ
  • Faceoff %: MTL 48.5-51.5 CBJ
  • Power play: MTL 1/3-0/1 CBJ
  • Takeaways: MTL 4-10 CBJ
  • Giveaways: MTL 2-6 CBJ
  • Blocked shots: MTL 15-18 CBJ
  • Hits: MTL 8-18 CBJ
  • 5-on-5 stats (via naturalstattrick.com):
    • Expected Goals (xG): MTL 2.78-2.01 CBJ
    • Chances (CF): MTL 61-47 CBJ
    • Shots (SF): MTL 38-26 CBJ
    • Scoring Chances (SCF): MTL 32-22 CBJ
    • High-Danger Chances (HDCF): MTL 11-8 CBJ

Injury Update

Jake Bean was placed on IR with a shoulder injury after leaving Tuesday night's win. Elvis Merzlikins will miss the next one-to-two weeks after leaving Tuesday night's win.

No players left tonight's game with injuries.

Next Up

The Blue Jackets' home stand continues on Saturday as they host the Detroit Red Wings at 7 p.m. ET on Bally Sports Ohio and 97.1 FM The Fan.

The Jackets are right back at it on Sunday as they'll host the Florida Panthers at 6 p.m. ET on Bally Sports Ohio and 97.1 FM The Fan.

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