Boone Jenner set the stage with a near hat trick, and then Yegor Chinakhov put a stamp on it with his shootout goal in the seventh round to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 5-4 win over the Arizona Coyotes Thursday night.
In a game in which the Blue Jackets could have put a half dozen more pucks into the back of the Coyotes' net, it was Chinakhov and his ridiculous snap shot that earned the additional point for the Jackets.
CHINNY COMES UP CLUTCH
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 19, 2021
pic.twitter.com/cFHAAXHOkV
| 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | SO | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLUE JACKETS | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| COYOTES | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Ohio State product and one-time Blue Jacket Ryan Dzingel put the Coyotes up 1-0 with a laser of a wrist shot at 5:59 of the first. The goal, Dzingel's first of the season, came just seconds after Columbus held Arizona shotless on the Yotes' first power play of the game.
Less than a minute later, Justin Danforth nearly tied things up with the first goal of his NHL career, but he was robbed on the doorstep by Arizona goalie Scott Wedgewood. Not long after, Wedgewood caught a break when the post saved him on a Jenner shot to finish a three-on-one.
The Blue Jackets would draw their first power play of the game with 4:08 remaining in the first when Jenner hooked and 33 seconds into it, they'd cash in when Jenner took a Jakub Voracek pass down low and flipped a backhand by Wedgewood to tie things up at one each.
that puck movement tho pic.twitter.com/UeF0ORSgU6
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 19, 2021
The teams carried the 1-1 score into the second period and it stayed that way for most of the period with Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins making two tremendous, point-blank saves in the first seven minutes of the period to keep the score knotted.
At 16:29 of the second, Blue Jackets defenseman Gavin Bayreuther lost an edge near the boards, turning the puck over to Arizona's Phil Kessel and he buried a wrist shot from the top of the right circle to give the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.
And then things got wild.
Twenty-three seconds later, Jenner got his second of the game, and ninth of the season, when he shelved an Oliver Bjorkstrand rebound to make it tie things at two. 42 seconds after that, Danforth finally got the first goal of his NHL career to make it 3-2, Jackets, but Arizona would answer less than two minutes later when Lawson Crouse sniped one to tie the game at 3-3.
FIRST @NHL GOAL ALERT
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 19, 2021
pic.twitter.com/RDnpcvpbX6
The two teams traded chances for most of the third before a Zach Werenski blast beat Wedgewood with a little over six minutes to play, putting the Blue Jackets up 4-3. The goal was initial credited to Jenner, but was later changed to Werenski.
Boone Jenner with the hat trick to put the Blue Jackets on top 4-3 pic.twitter.com/apqVWswTGW
— Bally Sports Columbus (@BallySportsCBUS) November 19, 2021
But Arizona wasn't done yet as Jakob Chychrun got his second of the season to tie it up at 4-4 with a wrister from the left circle at 14:18 of the third for the final scoring of regulation.
A Scrap
Blue Jackets rookie Cole Sillinger and Dzingel fought 5:36 into the third with Sillinger getting the worst of it as his head hit the ice. Sillinger left the game with a bloody nose but returned to the Blue Jackets bench with three minutes to play.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets (9–5–0) head north on to Vegas to face the Golden Knights (9–7–0) in a 10 p.m. ET tilt Saturday night. It's the first meeting of the season between the two teams.
After suffering their first two-game losing streak of the season, the Blue Jackets have now won two in a row, and are 5–2 in their last seven.
