Blue Jackets lose to Bruins, drop into tie for second wild card

COLUMBUS --The Columbus Blue Jackets fell into a tie for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, losing 6-2 to the Boston Bruins at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

The Blue Jackets (45-31-4) and the Montreal Canadiens trail the Carolina Hurricanes by one point for the first wild card. Each of the three has two games remaining. Columbus has more regulation/overtime wins than Montreal (44 to 41).
The Blue Jackets would have clinched a playoff berth with a win and a regulation loss by the Canadiens, who defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2.
WATCH: [All Bruins vs. Blue Jackets highlights]
"We've got another opportunity next game," Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. "Obviously disappointing but we cannot worry about this one. It's in the past now."
The Bruins (48-23-9) clinched second place in the Atlantic Division. They will play the third-place Maple Leafs, who lost 4-1 to the Hurricanes, in the Eastern Conference First Round and have home-ice advantage in the series.
"That's what we've been battling for all year," Boston forward Brad Marchand said. "It will be good to have home ice."

Marchand had a goal and an assist to become the 10th player in Bruins history with a 100-point season (36 goals, 64 assists). It is the most points by a Boston player since Joe Thornton had 101 in 2002-03.
"It's a cool personal stat, but it all goes toward the same goal to get to the playoffs and we're right there," Marchand said.
Jake DeBrusk had two goals and an assist, and Tuukka Rask made 32 saves for Boston, which led 5-0 early in the third period.
"They were playing for a purpose," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "They were playing for something. They played better than we did."
Columbus had outscored opponents 24-4 during a five-game winning streak.
Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled at 16:00 of the second period after allowing four goals on 23 shots. Joonas Korpisalo allowed two goals on five shots.
DeBrusk made it 1-0 at 1:58 of the first period when his deflection of a David Krejci pass went high over the goal, bounced off the top of the net and went off Bobrovsky's back and in.
"Just some puck luck, I'm not sure," DeBrusk said.
Marcus Johansson made it 2-0 at 17:27 of the first, scoring on a rebound after Bobrovsky made a left pad save on a shot from the slot by Charlie Coyle.

"They had better sticks than us," Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson said. "They checked really, really well, way better than us. It's pretty much how the outcome of the game went."
The Bruins scored twice in 46 seconds for a 4-0 lead in the second period.
Marchand scored unassisted at 15:14 after a defensive breakdown in front of Bobrovsky for a 3-0 lead. Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski was in front of the goal when he knocked the puck off the stick of teammate Seth Jones to Marchand at the left side of the goal crease.
"The first and third goals were kind of funny goals," Tortorella said. "They were crazy goals, but we got what we deserved tonight. They were the better team."
DeBrusk made it 4-0 at 16:00, scoring on a 2-on-1 with Karson Kuhlman.
David Pastrnak made it 5-0 at 34 seconds of the third.

Oliver Bjorkstrand extended his goal streak to six games, scoring on the power play to cut it to 5-1 at 5:51. He has eight goals in his past eight games.
Matt Duchene scored a power-play goal off a cross-ice pass by Artemi Panarin to make it 5-2 at 9:14.
Kuhlman scored at 10:28 for the 6-2 final.

They said it

"We're a good hockey club. We don't usually lose a lot of games in a row and (we) try to take care of the business at hand and correct things why we lost." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy
"This is playoff hockey. This is what wins it this time of the year. The team that does it better than the other is going to win. They didn't do anything special defensewise. They just checked better, which led to offense. We've been doing it that way the past five games here, so I'm not going to dwell on this one." -- Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno

Need to know

Krejci had two assists give him an NHL career-high 52. … Boston defenseman Torey Krug had two assists to set an NHL career high with 47. … Pastrnak has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in his past seven games. … Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past nine games.. … Marchand has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past seven games. … Panarin has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past six games.

What's next

Bruins:At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; SN360, FS-N, FS-WI, NESN, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets: At the New York Rangers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, MSG+, FS-O, NHL.TV)