The Blue Jackets welcomed fans back to Nationwide Arena for the first preseason home game of the season, downing St. Louis by a 3-0 score on Wednesday night.
Game in a Paragraph
Columbus evened its preseason record at 1-1 as it scored a goal in each period to pull away from the Blues. Despite killing six St. Louis power plays, the Blue Jackets had a 41-31 edge in shots on goal and received a number of solid performances up and down the lineup, while goalies Elvis Merzlikins and Zach Sawchenko combined on a shutout.
Quote of the Game
CBJ center and alternate captain Sean Kuraly: “Good to get a win. I think Elvis played really well, and Saw came in there and played really well, too. When you keep them out of your net, it’s a good feeling. You don’t want to be out there when they go in your net, so the no goals against is nice. You know what we’ve been through here. We’ve had too many goals go in our net.”
CBJ Standouts
- Kent Johnson had a goal and an assist and tied for the team lead with five shots on goal.
- Denton Mateychuk and Kirill Marchenko each tallied in their first preseason games of the campaign.
- Merzlikins stopped all 19 shots on goal he faced through two periods of action.
How It Happened
The teams played an even first period, but Columbus got the lone goal of the frame with 1:01 left when Mateychuk got on the board. The rookie defenseman hit the post on the rush earlier in the shift, but he didn’t miss this time, taking a cross-ice feed from Johnson and unleashing a wrister from the right circle that beat Blues goalie Joel Hofer.
Columbus then had the better of things in the second period, outshooting the Blues 16-8, and doubled the lead with 4:01 left in the period on Marchenko’s goal. Ivan Provorov fired on net from the left boards, and the puck deflected off Kuraly and into Hofer’s pads, then bounced out for the onrushing Marchenko to easily tap home.
Merzlikins was solid through two periods, while Sawchenko came in during the third and had to face both a nearly two-minute-long 5-on-3 disadvantage as well as an extended stretch when the Blues pulled their goalie in the final minutes. But he stood up to the challenge with 12 saves in the period, and Johnson iced the game with an empty-net goal at 19:20.
Notable
Johnson, Provorov and Yegor Chinakhov each finished with a team-high five shots on goal. ... Provorov – who had to be helped off the ice after he blocked a shot on a St. Louis power play in the first period but quickly returned – also finished plus-3.
Roster Report
Here is the roster the Blue Jackets used for the opening home preseason contest. The game marked the preseason debuts of alternate captains Kuraly and Erik Gudbranson as well as the team’s leading goal scorer a season ago, Marchenko, and Merzlikins.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets are off Thursday before returning to the ice Friday for a 7 p.m. game at Washington. Columbus then hosts Buffalo on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Nationwide Arena.
