VGK 5, CBJ 3: Columbus Turns Two-Goal Lead Into Two-Goal Defeat, Drop Third Straight Game

By Ed Francis on January 9, 2026 at 12:42 am
The Columbus Blue Jackets were in a dangerous position Thursday night — up two goals. Here's the story on how a 2-0 lead became a 5-3 defeat in the desert.
© Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
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  1 2 3 F
CBJ 2 0 1 3
VGK 1 3 1 5

CBJ GOALS: 
Jenner (1st, 8:24)
Johnson (1st, 10:41)
Marchenko (3rd, 14:28)

If the saying that the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results is true, the Columbus Blue Jackets ought to be measured for a straitjacket. 

The club blew another two-goal lead Thursday night, falling 5-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second game of a four-game road trip.

It was Columbus' third straight loss.

Columbus scored two first-period goals just 2:17 apart to take an early 2-0 lead. The first came off the stick of Boone Jenner and was the 403rd point of his career, pushing him past Cam Atkinson for third all-time in franchise history. 

Jenner's goal was also the end of the night for Vegas starter Carter Hart, who was injured on the play and immediately left the game. Akira Schmid came in to replace him and ended the night with 21 saves on 23 shots.

The second tally was from Kent Johnson, ending a 15-game drought without a goal for the 23-year-old.

Reilly Smith scored twice for Vegas; a first-period goal less than two minutes after Johnson's goal, and the second coming early in the second to tie the game.

Jack Eichel and Mark Stone also scored second-period goals for the Knights, giving them a 4-2 lead through the first forty minutes.

The Blue Jackets briefly made it interesting in the third period when Kirill Marchenko scored with just over five minutes remaining in regulation to make it a 4-3 game, but Brett Howden's goal with 3:46 left restored a two-goal lead that Columbus could not come back from.

It was the fifth goal of the night allowed by Jet Greaves, who finished with 21 saves on 26 shots.

Here's how, now at 18-18-7, the Blue Jackets dipped back to .500 on the season:

1st Period:

(8:24 — CBJ Goal): Hart is injured earlier in the sequence but, as Vegas is requesting play to be halted, officials tell them they won't blow the whistle until the Knights obtain the puck. Before they can do that, Jenner tips in Werenski's shot from the left dot and it gets past Hart, who has no stick and is down in pain. An unfortunate turn for the Knights but a good goal for Columbus, who goes up 1-0.

(10:41 — CBJ Goal): A great goal from Johnson — who really needed it — compliments of some brilliant passing from Jenner and Sean Monahan. Jenner gets it started with an up-ice pass to Johnson, who enters the zone and slips it to Monahan. He skates up just briefly before passing back to Johnson, who shoots from the slot and beats Schmid to make it 2-0 Blue Jackets.

(12:20 — VGK Goal): Smith cuts Columbus' lead in half with his seventh goal of the season. Vegas wins a faceoff in the Blue Jackets zone and goes to work, delivering a number of good passes that gets Columbus out of sorts defensively. Ben Hutton fires a shot from the point and Smith gets the deflection past Greaves to make it a 2-1 game.

(5:19 — VGK Goal): The Knights tie it at 2-2 just over five minutes into the second on a delayed penalty. They enter the zone up a man while also catching Columbus at the end of a shift change. Mitch Marner gets a pass off to Smith, who fires from the left circle for his second goal of the night to knot it up.

(13:07 — VGK Goal): Not much to say on this one. Eichel skates into the circle off a pass from Ivan Barbashev, tees one up, and beats Greaves to give Vegas their first lead of the game.

(18:44 — VGK Goal): The Golden Knights extend their lead to 4-2 on the power play. Stone has the puck and tries to pass across the crease to Tomas Hertl, but it pings back to Stone. He recollects it and quickly fires a snapper into the net to put Vegas up two.

(14:28 — CBJ Goal): Marchenko ties Werenski for the team lead in goals with his 16th of the season. He gets ahead of the Vegas defense and takes a pass from Ivan Provorov, skating in to beat Schmid to briefly make it a one-goal game at 4-3.

(16:12 — VGK Goal): Vegas puts it out of a reach with a fairly quick response. The Knights get a 2-on-1 break despite a great effort from Denton Mateychuk to get back. Keegan Kolesar has the puck and feeds Howden, who picks up his 9th goal of the season to give the Knights a 5-3 lead that would effectively end the game.

CBJ GAME STATS VGK
24 SHOTS 26
63% FACEOFFS 37%
0/1 POWER PLAY 1/2
1/2 PENALTY KILL 1/1
28 HITS 19
18 GIVEAWAYS 15
4 TAKEAWAYS 8
12 BLOCKED SHOTS 20
ALL SITUATIONS ADVANCED STATS
62 SHOT ATTEMPTS 51
29 SCORING CHANCES 29
13 HIGH-DANGER CHANCES 11
Data via NHL.com & NaturalStatTrick.com

Stat Chat:

  • There were a pair of debuts for the Blue Jackets in this one. Mikael Pyyhtia made his season debut for the team and was on the ice for 9:27, all even-strength. He nearly scored in the third period to bring the game to within one, but the puck jumped over his stick just outside of the creases. Egor Zamula made his team debut, and the defenseman skated for a total of 11:12 in a third-pairing role alongside Dante Fabbro.
     
  • With the primary assist on Jenner's goal, Werenski made it nine games in a row with at least a point, extending a season-long point streak.
     
  • The Blue Jackets won 63% of their faceoffs for the game, their third-highest percentage of the season. Leading that charge was Monahan, who went 10-1 at the dot.

Up Next:

Game three of the road trip is Saturday afternoon when the Blue Jackets stop in Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche. That's a tough one — the Avalanche have just four regulation losses all season. Puck-drop is slated for 4:00 p.m.

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Game Preview: Blue Jackets Road Trip Continues, Greaves Faces Hart As Columbus Battle Vegas

Jet Greaves will get the start, Mikael Pyyhtia makes his season debut, and Egor Zamula makes his team debut Thursday night when the Columbus Blue Jackets battle the Vegas Golden Knights.
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