Merzlikins Dazzles As Blue Jackets KO Bruins With Two Short-Handed Goals In 5-1 Victory

By Ed Francis on November 18, 2024 at 9:40 pm
Elvis Merzlikins was fantastic and the Columbus Blue Jackets picked up a pair of short-handed goals in a dominant 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins.
© Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
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  1 2 3 F
CBJ 3 0 2 5
BOS 0 1 0 1

CBJ GOALS: 
Voronkov (P1, 5:17)
Olivier (P1, 10:39) (SH)
van Riemsdyk (P1, 19:28)
Danforth (P3, 7:19) (SH)
Chinakhov (P3, 14:09)

Mathieu Olivier and Justin Danforth scored short-handed goals and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 29 of the Boston Bruins' 30 shots as the Columbus Blue Jackets picked up a 5-1 win Monday night in one of their best games of the season.

Olivier's short-handed goal came in the first period and made it a 2-0 game after Dmitri Voronkov started the scoring just minutes earlier. Columbus would add a third goal in the final minute of the period, this one from James van Riemsdyk.

After a quiet second period in which the Blue Jackets registered just four shots on goal, Danforth put the game out of reach with his third goal of the season and Columbus' second short-handed tally of the night. 

Five different Blue Jackets scored and ten different skaters picked up at least a point, including Sean Monahan, who had two assists, and Zach Werenski, who picked up his team-leading 10th apple on the van Riemsdyk goal.

Here's how it all went down in Beantown:

1st Period:

(2:20): For the second time in three nights, Mathieu Olivier was in a heavyweight tilt. This one came just two minutes into the game and was against the 6'2", 210lb Jeffrey Viel. It wasn't quite as good as Olivier's battle with Montreal's Arber Xhekaj from Saturday, but a good battle and one that only the most biased Boston fans would score against Olivier.

(5:17 — CBJ Goal): A terrific play from Dmitri Voronkov makes its 1-0 in favor of the Blue Jackets just over five minutes in. Sean Monahan springs him and the Bruins defense can't catch up, despite hooking Voronkov. There was a delayed penalty incoming, but the puck ends up in the back of the net before Columbus could go on the man-advantage. Dante Fabbro got the secondary assist on the goal, giving him a point in three straight games.

(10:39 — CBJ Goal): Columbus doubles the lead to 2-0 on their second short-handed goal of the season. This one comes unassisted on a great individual effort from Olivier and is his sixth of the season, a new career best. He had five goals in each of the last two seasons, playing 66 and 54 games in those two campaigns. This was Olivier's 18th game. 

(15:15): Elvis Merzlikins with one of his better saves of the young season. The Bruins had five high-danger chances to Columbus' two in the first period, and saves like these sucked the life out of the TD Garden for the home team and their fans.

(19:28 — CBJ Goal): The perfect example of what a secondary assist can be far more impactful than its name suggests. James van Riemsdyk makes it 3-0 game in the final minute of the first period but the goal comes only after a shot from Zach Werenski deflects off JVR, and that only comes after Werenski was the recipient of a beautiful pass from Adam Fantilli. He gets the secondary assist but it was the catalyst of the Blue Jackets lead expanding.

2nd Period:

(14:30 — BOS Goal): The Blue Jackets give up a power play goal in a fourth consecutive game, this time helping the Bruins end a streak of 24 consecutive man-advantages without a goal and cut the lead to 3-1 in favor of Columbus. 

(19:45): With the Bruins about halfway through a power play, Zach Aston-Reese and Monahan do some excellent work to keep the puck near Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman. ZAR maintained it for several seconds despite being outmanned 3-1 and then Monahan steals it and immediately draws a penalty. A great sequence by the two players to help push momentum back to Columbus when it was clearly slipping away, as evident by the 26-5 Bruins advantage in shot attempts in the middle frame.

3rd Period:

(7:19 — CBJ Goal): The second short-handed goal of the game for the Blue Jackets makes it a 4-1 game. Boston's Mason Lohrei has some trouble handling the puck at the top of the zone and Cole Sillinger bounces on it. He's quickly joined by Danforth to create a 2-on-1 and Sillinger waits until the last moment to make the pass to Danforth, who beats Swayman. 

(14:09 — CBJ Goal): A snipe from Yegor Chinakhov to seal the deal on a quick pass from Monahan. The pass was good. The shot was better. For Chinakhov, it was just his second goal in the last 13 games after he tallied three in his first five.

CBJ GAME STATS BOS
29 SHOTS 29
51% FACEOFFS 49%
0/2 POWER PLAY 1/6
5/6 PENALTY KILL 2/2
22 HITS 13
16 GIVEAWAYS 19
1 TAKEAWAYS 7
19 BLOCKED SHOTS 10
ALL SITUATIONS ADVANCED STATS
1.88 EXPECTED GOALS 3.25
46 SHOT ATTEMPTS 66
18 SCORING CHANCES 35
8 HIGH-DANGER CHANCES 17
 DATA VIA:
NHL.COM & NATURALSTATTRICK.COM

Stat Talk:

  • The second period was one of serious woe for the Blue Jackets. They had just five shot attempts, compared to the Bruins 26, and generated only two scoring chances to Boston's 13. With a 3-0 lead, it was the strong play of Merzlikins to keep the Bruins at bay and allow just one goal in the frame.
     
  • The two short-handed goals from the Blue Jackets is something they haven't done on the road since March 19th, 2017. They've only done it six times in franchise history, most recently December 31st, 2022.
     
  • Olivier's sixth goal set his new career-high in just 18 games. He had five in each of the last two seasons, in which he played 66 games (2022-23) and 54 games (2023-24). 

Up Next:

The Blue Jackets return to Columbus for a Thursday night tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's Hockey Fights Cancer night at Nationwide Arena, with the puck drop set for 7:00 p.m.

 

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