Lightning spoil Gaudreau's home debut with Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS --The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Johnny Gaudreau's home debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets, winning 5-2 at Nationwide Arena on Friday.

"We got off to a good start," said Gaudreau, who opened the scoring with his first goal for Columbus. "The second (period) they took it to us and we lost focus. Once we got down a couple of goals, we knew it was going to be a hard battle to get back there."
Steven Stamkos scored twice, Corey Perry and Ross Colton each had a goal and an assist, and Alex Killorn, Vladislav Namestnikov and Mikhail Sergachev each had two assists for the Lightning (1-1-0). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.
"It was a well-rounded game, something we needed, and now we just need to carry it into tomorrow (at the Pittsburgh Penguins)," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Did we make some mistakes? We did. [Vasilevskiy] was there to bail us out when we needed it."
Gustav Nyquist scored for the Blue Jackets (0-2-0), who were playing their first game without Patrik Laine, who is out 3-4 weeks with an elbow sprain. Daniil Tarasov made 34 saves.
Gaudreau made it 1-0 at 2:21 of the first period when his shot from in close deflected in off Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. Justin Danforth, who replaced Laine on Gaudreau's line, got the primary assist on a pass from behind the net.

Perry tied it 1-1 at 14:08 with a power-play goal. He redirected a shot by Namestnikov that hit off Tarasov and trickled across the line.
"You knew they were going to come out hard with their home opener, and you knew their juices would be flowing for them," Perry said. "And the crowd was into it early. They got an early [goal], but we found a way on the power play to get one right back."
Stamkos gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 15:21 when his shot from the right corner deflected in off the skate of Blue Jackets defenseman Adam Boqvist.
Nyquist scored 34 seconds later on a 2-on-1 to tie it 2-2, but Colton put the Lightning back in front 3-2 at 18:55.
"We had some juice early on, but how we played tonight, we were really sloppy," Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. "We weren't good enough tonight."
Cal Foote made it 4-2 at 7:45 of the second period, redirecting a return pass from Colton that deflected in off Blue Jackets defenseman Jake Bean's skate.
"We had some bad bounces, but that's not why we lost tonight," Larsen said. "They were the better team, plain and simple."

The Blue Jackets had a chance to get back into the game during a two-man advantage for 1:36, 16 seconds of which carried over into the third period, but they couldn't convert.
"Whenever you kill a 5-on-3, it's a boost to the team and gives you energy," Namestnikov said. "The boys were excited on the bench and kind of took over from there, and we just had to finish the game off."
Stamkos extended the lead to 5-2 at 7:57 of the third, deflecting a shot from Sergachev five-hole on Tarasov.
"I thought we weren't really sharp tonight," Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski said. "We worked hard, but we got away from our game and kind of played right into their game. They're a skilled team and a fast team, and we made some turnovers that played into their hands, and they're going to make you pay."
NOTE: Hedman was playing in his 900th NHL game. He had an assist in a game-high 24:59 of ice time.