CBJ 5, DAL 1: Five Different Blue Jackets Score, Elvis Makes 22 Saves As Columbus Gives Dallas A Texas-Sized Beating

By Ed Francis on October 21, 2025 at 10:42 pm
Five different Blue Jackets scored and Elvis was the #1 Star of the Night in Columbus' 5-1 win in Dallas on Tuesday over the Stars.
© Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
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  1 2 3 F
CBJ 2 0 3 5
DAL 0 1 0 1

CBJ GOALS: 
Fantilli (P1, 4:33)
Jenner (PP) (P1, 18:42)
Matecyhuk (P3, 7:21)
Voronkov (PP) (P3, 14:26)
Johnson (EN) (P3, 17:00)

Five different skaters scored and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 22 shots as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Dallas Stars by a final of 5-1 Tuesday night.

Adam Fantilli started the scoring less than five minutes in for the Blue Jackets and Boone Jenner added to the lead with a power play goal later in the period to put Columbus up 2-0 heading into the first intermission.

The quick start was no coincidence. 

"We wanted to get to our game right away and kind of build off the last game at home," said Jenner. "We thought that was more of our style, and we wanted to bring that into Dallas tonight."

Dallas trimmed the Columbus lead to one in the middle of the second period, but Merzlikins stood tall and made 13 saves in the middle frame to keep the Blue Jackets ahead.

"You know they're going to come hard in the second," said Jenner. "Elvis kind of calmed us down to be honest. He made some huge saves for us."

Merzlikins was named the #1 Star of the Night.

Denton Mateychuk restored Columbus' two-goal lead just over seven minutes into the third period on his first goal of the season, and the Blue Jackets would add to their lead later in the third with a Dmitri Voronkov power play goal.

Kent Johnson's empty-netter completed the night's scoring.

Here's how the Blue Jackets picked up their largest win of the season:

1st Period:

(4:33 — CBJ Goal): The Blue Jackets go up 1-0 on Fantilli's second goal of the season and it comes as a result of some good play along the boards by Columbus. Kent Johnson makes a strong effort play with his backhand to keep the puck for the Blue Jackets near the half-wall. He then gets it through some traffic to Jenner in the corner, who quickly finds Fantilli. The young center then rips it past Jake Oettinger for his second tally of the season.

(18:42 — CBJ PP Goal): A so-far-this-season elusive power-play goal for the Blue Jackets puts them up 2-0. Charlie Coyle gets the puck in the left circle off a pass by Damon Severson and tries to make a pass of his own inside to Jenner. The pass instead goes off the skate of Jenner and into the back of the net.

"It's a nice play by Severson to kind of buy some time for me to get in the pocket," said Coyle. "I'm thinking shot and sometimes at the last second, (you think you) see something and I just tried to throw it there; it was a good play by Boone to go on one knee and have it ricochet off of him."

The goal was briefly reviewed but stood.

2nd Period:

(11:58 — DAL Goal): The only goal of the second period comes from Tyler Seguin. He deflects Colin Blackwell's shot home to cut Columbus' lead in half. Dallas does a good job here of keeping the puck in the Blue Jackets' zone and getting the defense out of sorts. Merzlikins makes a few saves in the sequence but eventually the puck slips past him.

3rd Period:

(7:21 — CBJ Goal): A huge goal from Denton Mateychuk restores the Blue Jackets' two-goal lead. This play seemingly comes out of nowhere: Zach Aston-Reese dumps it in to the zone and Yegor Chinakhov gathers the puck over three Dallas skaters. Mateychuk charges in from the neutral zone and grabs the puck in the high slot. He blasts a snapper that beats Oettinger and extends the Columbus lead to 3-1.

"I don't know what was behind me but I didn't see anything really in front of me besides some runway, and walked in and noticed the defender was kind of frozen so I pushed to the middle and shot it short-side and found the back of the net," said Mateychuk of his goal.

(14:26 — CBJ PP Goal): Another power play goal, this time from Voronkov. Marchenko is the first into the zone and slides it over to Sean Monahan. Monny waits just long enough to catch Voronkov in the slot at the exact moment he can get off a clean shot, and he does just that, firing it through the five-hole of Oettinger to make it 4-1 Blue Jackets. The assist picked up by Monahan was his first point of the season.

(17:00 — CBJ EN Goal): Johnson ices the game with an empty-net goal. 

CBJ GAME STATS DAL
29 SHOTS 23
42% FACEOFFS 58%
2/2 POWER PLAY 0/2
2/2 PENALTY KILL 0/2
35 HITS 22
15 GIVEAWAYS 16
8 TAKEAWAYS 5
5 BLOCKED SHOTS 14
ALL SITUATIONS ADVANCED STATS
3.52 EXPECTED GOALS 3.26
59 SHOT ATTEMPTS 46
24 SCORING CHANCES 25
9 HIGH-DANGER CHANCES 12
Data via NHL.com & NaturalStatTrick.com

Stat Chat:

  • This was the 82nd multi-point game for Jenner, who had a goal and an assist. That passes the now retired Cam Atkinson for second all time in franchise history. He's got a ways to go before catching Rick Nash, whose 137 is the most in Blue Jackets history. 
     
  • Speaking of second in franchise history, Merzlikins' win was his 96th — tying him with Steve Mason for second-most in team history. Sergei Bobrovsky's 213 will hold up for a while.
     
  • One franchise record that was set tonight was in the final score. The 5-1 win is the largest margin of victory over the Stars in Columbus history.
     
  • Merzlikins' 22 saves on 23 shots boost his save percentage to .927 on the season. With Jet Greaves .928 save percentage, the Blue Jackets are one of two goalie tandems in the NHL (the Washington Capitals are the other) where both goalies have a save percentage higher than .920. 

Up Next:

Columbus gets two days off before returning to home ice for a Friday night battle against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. Puck-drop is set for 7:00 p.m.

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