That's how it's done.
After a tough loss shootout loss Saturday night against the New York Rangers and a flat performance Monday night against the New York Islanders in a 3-1 loss, the Columbus Blue Jackets scored five goals and shut down the Toronto Maple Leafs offense in a 5-1 win Wednesday night.
The rebound win was propelled by a couple of hometown kids: Adam Fantilli and Luca Del Bel Belluz, both from the Toronto area, combined for four of Columbus' five goals and Fantilli picked up his first career hat trick en route to the rout of the Maple Leafs.
Elvis Merzlikins put together one of his best performances of the season, stopping 28 of the Maple Leafs 29 shots and making a number of big saves when the game was still up for grabs.
For all three players, it was an unforgettable night. For the Blue Jackets, it was a huge two points to end a brief, two-game skid.
Here are three things from Columbus' big night in Canada:
Fantilli's First Hatty And A Hat From Mom
After scoring an aggressive short-handed goal late in the first period, Fantilli got his second of the night on a doorstep snapper that extended Columbus' lead to 3-0 in the second period.
The #CBJ are up 3-0 after two periods.
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) January 23, 2025
Adam Fantilli has scored twice including this first-period shorty: pic.twitter.com/wJ1X0hZ757
He then completed the hat trick on an empty-netter with nearly eight minutes (!!!) left in the game, after Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube got overly aggressive in trying to give Toronto a man-advantage.
Fantilli is from Toronto, and had dozens of friends and family in attendance. One of them: his mom, Julia. When the Blue Jackets blossoming star was on a 2-on-1 with Kirill Marchenko and the Leafs net empty, Julia was ready to lose her hat to help celebrate her son's first three-goal effort.
Fantilli's mom was the first to throw a hat on the ice pic.twitter.com/Dm2mNEOSWW
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 23, 2025
“It means the world to be able to do that in front of my friends and family,” Fantilli told the Toronto Star. “I’m super grateful that they all came out and I was able to pull that one off.”
Fantilli now has 14 goals in 48 games this season, half of which have come since the calendar flipped to 2025. Since being inserted as the top line center following the injury to Sean Monahan earlier this month, Fantilli has been amongst the best players on the team and is showcasing why he was the third overall pick in 2023.
LDBB Proving His NHL Worth
Fantilli's hatty came in his second game in Toronto — but Luca Del Bel Belluz had a goal as part of a two-point effort in his first game in Toronto, where the rookie was born and raised.
The 21-year-old had the primary assist on a James van Riemsdyk goal that put the Blue Jackets up 2-0 in the second period. That was enough to excite his 50-ish friends and family in the Scotiabank Arena. But in the third period, with Columbus up 3-0, Del Bel Belluz was in the right place at the right time via good hustle and a strong forecheck and turned the night into something he (and those with him) would never forget:
Columbus goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 23, 2025
Scored by Luca Del Bel Belluz with 14:04 remaining in the 3rd period.
Toronto: 0
Columbus: 4#CBJvsTOR #LeafsForever #CBJ pic.twitter.com/bZy6th7jbX
“It’s special,” said Del Bel Belluz. “Obviously with a lot of people in the crowd supporting me, it’s good to give them (a goal), at least something they remember from this game."
Del Bel Belluz has been magnificent since being called up January 9th following the injury to Monahan. He has two goals and three assists for five points in seven games — and add a goal and a point to that if you include his only other NHL game: the 2023-24 season finale, where LDBB scored in his big-league debut.
Monahan is likely to return sometime in February or early March, but it's not going to be as easy as sending Del Bel Belluz back to Cleveland, where he led the team (and the AHL) in scoring at the time of his call-up. The Blue Jackets are bursting at the seams with young talent, and Del Bel Belluz's hot start to his NHL career is only more reason for optimism.
Elvis Stops 28, Plays With Matthews' Stick
Without Fantilli and Del Bel Belluz's career nights in the shadows of where they were born and raised, Merzlikins would have been the story of the game.
He allowed just one goal, putting Toronto's potent offense to bed. The Leafs had won three straight games, scoring 16 goals in those 180 minutes of hockey. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Maple Leafs had 39 scoring chances and 16 high-danger chances Wednesday night, but Merzlikins remained cool, calm, and collected throughout the night and stymied Auston Matthews and company.
One of the funnier moments of the season came in an exchange between Merzlikins and Matthews. When both players lost their stick, the easiest route for each was to play with each other's stick. That's illegal, but made for a fun moment:
Auston Matthews and Elvis Merzikins both got penalties for using each other's stick pic.twitter.com/VbCeIkWwqz
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 23, 2025
Matthews and Merzlikins received minor penalties for stick-related infractions.
Merzlikins was named the second Star of the Game.
UP NEXT:
The Blue Jackets are one leg through their toughest back-to-back of the season. Thursday night comes leg two, when Columbus is in Raleigh to battle the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck-drop is set for 7 p.m.