Columbus built a 2-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes thanks to a pair of goals by Bjorkstrand. The first came at 5:56 as Jack Roslovic caused a turnover in the corner and fed Tyler Angle at the side of the net, and his pass to Bjorkstrand alone in front led to a quick shot past goalie Aaron Dell. The Maestro then doubled the advantage at 9:37 on the power play, unleashing a quick wrister over the blocker of dell from the top of the left circle. Buffalo got one back, though, at 11:20 as John Hayden centered the puck from the right corner and Arttu Ruotsalainen jammed it through the pads of goalie Elvis Merzlikins.
The Blue Jackets wasted little time in the second to extend to the lead to 3-1 as Gavrikov scored 27 seconds into the frame, flipping a wrister over Dell's glove from the high slot after Bean and Eric Robinson won a board battle. Merzlikins made his biggest save of the period with just over seven minutes left, denying Linus Weissbach as he danced in alone, then Bean made it a 4-1 game with 3:52 to play when his shot from the left point got through a screen and beat goalie Dustin Tokarski.
Buffalo cut the CBJ advantage to two goals at 4-2 just 2:30 into the third as CBJ goalie Jet Greaves made a nice stop on Michael Mersch at the net front before the Sabres forward was able to sneak the rebound across the line. It looked as though the Blue Jackets would be able to finish things off from there, but Buffalo tallied twice with an extra attacker, as JJ Peterka scored off a faceoff with 2:04 to go and Weissbach potted the rebound of a Vinnie Hinostroza shot past Greaves with 53.4 seconds on the clock, to knot the score 4-4.
In overtime, there were chances for each side -- notably a breakaway for Gavrikov set up by Bjorkstrand -- but no goals leading to a shootout. There, Jack Quinn scored on the first shot for Buffalo, and Columbus saw Bjorkstrand denied, Jack Roslovic fire high and Kevin Stenlund hit the post.
