Fantilli Scores Twice, Olivier Spars Twice In Blue Jackets 5-2 Victory Over The Calgary Flames

By Ed Francis on November 29, 2024 at 5:46 pm
Adam Fantilli scored twice and Mathieu Olivier brought the crowd to life with a pair of spectacular spars as the #CBJ defeated the Calgary Flames 5-2 in Black Friday hockey.
© Aaron Doster-Imagn Images
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  1 2 3 F
CGY 0 1 1 2
CBJ 2 1 2 5

CBJ GOALS: 
Fantilli (P1, 11:56)
Johnson (P1, 16:42)
Werenski (P2, 4:43)
Fantilli (2) (P3, 4:46)
Marchenko (P3, 18:20)

Adam Fantilli scored twice and both Zach Werenski and Kent Johnson continued impressive scoring streaks as the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Calgary Flames in Friday afternoon hockey at Nationwide Arena.

Fantilli's first goal came as a power-play expired in the first and was the first goal of the game — his second gave them a 4-1 lead in the third period that would put the game out of reach.

Johnson scored less than five minutes after Fantilli gave Columbus a 1-0 lead, continuing his now eight-game point streak. He's picked up at least a point in every game he's played in this season.

Werenski's point streak is now at seven games after his second-period goal. It was his eighth and moved him into a tie for first amongst defenseman in the NHL.

Mathieu Olivier didn't score but had a couple of impressive fights that brought the crowd to its feet and the bench to their feet, too. 

Kirill Marchenko added an empty-netter in the final two minutes to give the Blue Jackets their 9th 5+ goal game of the season.

Elvis Merzlikins made 27 saves on 29 shots from Calgary and was named the game's Third Star of the game. He took a roughing penalty early in the third, but had no regrets.

"I had my puck between my legs and he went with his stick to my groin," said Merzlikins. "In that moment I just reacted and he totally deserved it."

Fantilli served the penalty for Merzlikins, and his second goal came on a rush after exiting the box — a bit of karma for the stick to the groin.

Here's how it shook out between the Flames and the Jackets:

1st Period:

(11:56 — CBJ Goal): A lot happened with this goal: for a while, it was James van Riemsdyk and on the power play. But it was later changed to an Adam Fantilli goal after the power play had expired. In either event, the 5th Flame was still leaving the box when Fantilli took a shot through a tight space near the left faceoff dot. It rings off the post and goes in for his fourth goal of the season. Ivan Provorov collects his sixth assist of the season on the goal.

(16:42 — CBJ Goal): Calgary has a little bit of trouble playing the puck, Johnson tips it over to Fantilli and he chips it right back to Johnson to create a 2-on-1. Flames goalie Dustin Wolf sees Fantilli coming down his right and isn't sure what KJ's going to do with it. He fires it, right past Wolf, to double the Columbus lead.

2nd Period

(4:43 — CBJ Goal): The Blue Jackets expanding their lead to 3-0 starts with Wolf having a little bit of trouble behind his net. He plays it clean, but then his clearing attempt is interrupted in the corner by Dmitri Voronkov. He finds Marchenko, who goes stick side on Wolf and pulls him way out of the net. With Wolf way out of the grease, Marchy gets it to Werenski who gets it past a couple of Calgary defenders with ease.

(11:54 — Donnybrook Of The Day): A lot led us to this moment. Jake Christiansen and Martin Pospisil had squared off earlier in the period, a fight without a clean winner. There was some earlier jawing at Olivier, but nothing led to it. Once Olivier gets a hard (but clean) hit onto Joel Hanley, though? Pospisil again drops the gloves (one of which ended up a few rows deep in section 105). Brayden Pachal comes in, holds Olivier's arms back to let Pospisil get a few hits in a less-than-classy move. 

Spoiler Alert: Olivier will get his vengeance, as he predicted to the Flames bench after the fight:

(14:59 — CGY Goal): Some good puck movement from the Flames, but Merzlikins has a tough time handing the puck on Rasmus Andersson's shot and Blake Coleman is right there to put it back and get Calgary on the board for the first time in the game to cut Columbus' lead to 3-1.

(19:37 — Nevermind, *This* Was The Donnybrook Of The Day): Just watch and enjoy. 

3rd Period

(4:46 — CBJ Goal): Adam Fantilli gets his second of the night to give the Blue Jackets a 4-1 lead and put this one out of reach, which usually would be the coolest part about a goal — but not this one. Kirill Marchenko's pass right between the skates of Kevin Bahl is an absolute thing of beauty. (It's okay if you want to watch it more than once.)

(11:00 — CGY Goal): Nazem Kadri cuts into the Blue Jackets lead just over halfway through the third, with a wrister to make 4-2.  

(18:20 — CBJ Goal): Marchenko gets his team-leading ninth goal of the season on the empty-netter to send the near sell-out crowd home happy. 

MTL GAME STATS CBJ
29 SHOTS 34
50% FACEOFFS 50%
1/3 POWER PLAY 0/1
1/1 PENALTY KILL 2/3
28 HITS 24
35 GIVEAWAYS 28
7 TAKEAWAYS 8
10 BLOCKED SHOTS 20
ALL SITUATIONS ADVANCED STATS
2.77 EXPECTED GOALS 3.75
61 SHOT ATTEMPTS 54
27 SCORING CHANCES 27
14 HIGH-DANGER CHANCES 9
 DATA VIA:
NHL.COM & NATURALSTATTRICK.COM

Stat Chat:

  • The Flames won the scoring attempt battle 61-54, but when Werenski was out there, it was a different story. The Blue Jackets had 33 of the 55 (60%) shot attempts with Z on the ice. Werenski is now tied with Colorado's Cale Makar for the most goals in the NHL by a defenseman. 
     
  • Fantilli's pair of goals gave him his second multi-goal game of his career — but the first in which Columbus has picked up a victory in. 
     
  • One bad habit the Blue Jackets have slipped into this season is allowing goals nearly instantly after scoring them. That was not the case in this game though, and kept the team energized. 
     
  • Columbus blocked twice as many (20) shots as the Flames (10) in the game. This is a team that plays hard for each other and is willing to make whatever play necessary. 

Up Next:

It'll be quite a bit before the Blue Jackets are back on home ice. They begin a five-game road trip, starting Sunday in Chicago for another 3:00 p.m. puck-drop. They'll see the Flames against Tuesday night to start their western Canada swing.

 

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