Merzlikins stops 40, Blue Jackets hold off Devils to end 5-game skid

COLUMBUS -- Elvis Merzlikins made 40 saves, and Sean Monahan had two goals and an assist when the Columbus Blue Jackets ended a five-game skid with a 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.

Zach Werenski and Ivan Provorov also scored, and Kirill Marchenko had two assists for the Blue Jackets (13-15-5), who went 0-3-2 during the losing streak and had lost eight of nine (1-6-2).

“I was feeling the puck. I was feeling good,” Merzlikins said. “Overall, the whole team, we did an amazing job. In the end, we were battling really hard. The guys were blocking a lot of shots. The first two periods were awesome. We were fast, quick, physical. We were playing our game. So that's good.”

Merzlikins stopped 16 of 18 shots in the third period.

“He held us in there when we gave up some point-blank opportunities,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “Made some spectacular saves, but more than that he made the routine ones look routine. He looked really calm in there.”

Luke Hughes had a goal and an assist, and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (21-11-3), who had won three in a row during a four-game point streak (3-0-1). Jake Allen made 16 saves.

“What a performance by Merzlikins,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We fell short because of the goaltending.

“Obviously, we should have scored a lot more than we did tonight. The goalie was outstanding on their side. I thought we played a good game in lots of areas, very structured. We didn't give up much, but we coughed some up.”

Provorov gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 7:55 of the first period, skating in to score on the rebound of a Zach Aston-Reese shot.

Werenski extended it to 2-0 at 9:36 of the second period with a power-play goal. He scored straight-on from above the circles, using a screen by Dmitri Voronkov to put a shot in off the right post.

Monahan made it 3-0 at 13:58 when a shot from the right side went off the skate of Voronkov to Allen, and he knocked in the rebound on the backhand.

“It hasn’t been going the way wanted it, so guys had to step up,” Monahan said. “The first (thing) was the start. Winning these games gives us a great boost here.”

Luke Hughes cut it to 3-1 at 17:10 of the third period with Allen pulled for the extra skater, lifting the puck over a prone Merzlikins.

“We have a really resilient group and obviously not the outcome that we want but for all our guys to play 60 (minutes) like that, push to the very end, is a very important thing,” Hughes said.

Merzlikins was under siege after that with Allen still pulled.

“I'm still trying to catch my breath. It was hard,” Merzlikins said. “They were coming. They were coming really hard. They're a great team.

“Players were all around the crease. There was too many sticks, too many skates. There was a point that I couldn't even understand what's going on.”

Meier then made it 3-2 at 18:35 from the slot.

“I’ve got to give credit to them, but it's also on us to bury those chances that we have,” he said. “At the end, we got close, but it's almost like we started scoring too late.”

Monahan scored into an empty net at 18:50 for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: Werenski extended his home point streak to 10 games (eight goals, nine assists) to tie the franchise record held by Oliver Bjorkstrand (2021-22), Cam Atkinson (2016-17) and Andrew Cassels (2002-03). … Werenski also tied Nick Foligno for fourth on the Blue Jackets career points list with 334 (101 goals, 233 assists). … Marchenko’s second assist gave him 100 NHL points (55 goals, 45 assists) in 170 games to become the fourth-fastest Columbus player to reach the mark behind Pierre-Luc Dubois (142 games), Nikolay Zherdev (150 games) and Rick Nash (164 games). … Blue Jackets forward James Malatesta made his season debut and had two hits in 10:56 of ice time. … Luke Hughes (26:14) and Jack Hughes (24:53) combined to play 41:07 and took 19 shots on goal, including an NHL career high 13 by Jack, one off the franchise record held by Claude Lemieux (Dec. 3, 1992, at the Ottawa Senators). … Jack Hughes was on the ice 5:39 of the final 6:05. Luke played the last 3:16.