Game Day #37: Blue Jackets Aim For Season Sweep Of Bruins As Columbus, Boston Complete Home-And-Home Series

It won't be as easy Saturday night.

The Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins complete a home-and-home series — and their season series — from the TD Garden in Boston one night after a dominate 6-2 win from the Blue Jackets in front of their home crowd.

The victory moved Columbus to an 11-4-3 record at Nationwide Arena, but they're just the opposite — 4-11-3 — away from home.

Zach Werenski, who had four assists in the win and has seven in his last two games, is well aware of the team's road woes.

"We're doing our job at home and if we want to get where we want to go, we have to win some games on the road," said Werenski.

Head coach Dean Evason echoed a similar sentiment.

"We've challenged the group to be better on the road," said Evason. "We have to start our establishing ourselves as a road team that plays the same way, so this game (Friday) has to roll into (Saturday) night."

They have a chance to do that in Boston, and to complete a season sweep of the Bruins. Columbus has outscored Boston 11-3 in their first two meetings, including a 5-1 win in November that was one of those four road wins.

Here's what else to know when the Blue Jackets and Bruins run it back Saturday night:

• RE: BRUINS
  Friday's loss snapped a five-game point streak for the Bruins, who were 4-0-1 leading into the holiday break. ... One night after the Blue Jackets defeated Joonas Korpisalo in net, they'll face Jeremy Swayman. He's been the primary netminder for Boston this season, with a 12-10-3 record as the starter. His core stats, though, have not been as good as Korpi: a 3.05 goals against (Korpisalo: 2.71) and .887 save percentage (Korpisalo: .895%). ... Charlie Coyle scored in the third period Friday night, giving him three straight games with a goal. 
   
• TARRY TIME?
  A final decision won't be announced until late this afternoon, but it seems that Daniil Tarasov will get the start in net Saturday. Elvis Merzlikins was the goaltender Friday night and Jet Greaves is currently in Cleveland with the AHL's Monsters. It would be Tarasov's first start since December 5th and just his second dating back to November 16th. Tarasov has given up 11 goals in his last two outings and has a 4.26 goals against average on the season in a total of nine starts.
   
• TOP LINE STATEMENT
  Five of the six goals for the Blue Jackets on Friday night came from the top trio of Dmitri Voronkov, Sean Monahan, and Kirill Marchenko. That includes all three goals on the power play, two of which came from Voronkov in the second period. It helps, of course, when Werenski is on the ice: he assisted on all three power play strikes and four of the five goals generated from the trio.
   
• LINEUPS & PROJECTIONS
  Evason won't meet with the media until late in the afternoon, at which point any changes in the lineup will be announced — but it's hard to imagine much in the way of changes after Columbus' performance Friday night, beyond the change in net on the second leg of a back-to-back. If there are no changes, it'll be the third straight game where the Blue Jackets will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Here are the complete projections: