*Photo from TSN*
At the beginning of this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets have been the comeback kids in the NHL. Not really from adversity or low expectations, they are coming back from deficits and winning games. Boone Jenner scored, Zach Werenski scored, and the Blue Jackets rallied past the Detroit Red Wings with a 5-3 win on Monday night.
With another comeback win, the Blue Jackets improve to 8-5-0 to start the season, 6th place in a tightly contested Metropolitan Division. Their latest comeback is their 6th come from behind win in their first 13 games of the season. Just this month, they have two comebacks that have seen the winning goal in the last two minutes of the 3rd period. This time, it was Werenski's turn to step up.
Werenski said of his goal that "I was gonna change. I saw my stick sitting at center ice. I went and picked it up. When I got in the zone, Gus passed me the puck and it ended up going in the net. Probably one of the weirder goals I've scored, but we'll take it."
Dylan Larkin put the Red Wings on the board first, scoring his 7th goal of the season 14:45 into the first period, on an assist by Lucas Raymond. The Red Wings made it 2-0 when Michael Rasmussen scored 4:23 into the second period, his first goal of the season. 13:07 into the period, Jenner got the Blue Jackets on the board, cutting it to a 2-1 game. Adam Boqvist then picked up his first goal of the season 14:55 into period number two, tying the game 2-2 after two periods.
In the 3rd, Raymond scored his 7th goal of the season to put the Red Wings ahead by a 3-2 score with 6:29 remaining. A few minutes later, Yegor Chinakhov scored his first NHL goal for the Blue Jackets to tie the game 3-3 with time dwindling. Werenski then put Columbus ahead 4-3 with just 1:19 remaining in the game, his 3rd goal this season. Alexandre Texier sealed the game with an empty net goal with 3 seconds remaining to make it 5-3 Blue Jackets.
Jenner said of Chinakhov's first NHL goal that "Yeah, it was obviously a huge goal to tie it up, but for him, you could see it was coming. He's been getting lots of good looks. You can see his release and his shot on that goal, it's obviously pretty special. Really happy for him. He's been getting the chances, and it's good to see one go by him for him."
Elvis Merzlikins made the start in goal for the Blue Jackets, and he continued a strong start to the season. In his 8th start, Merzlikins saved 24 of 27 Red Wings shots, posting a .889 save percentage, bringing his season total to .925 so far. With the win, Merzlikins improved to 6-2-0 to begin the season.
Thomas Greiss made the start for the Red Wings, playing the first half of a back to back. Greiss saved 33 of 37 shots, posting a .892 save percentage while getting the loss. With the defeat, the record for Greiss this season now sits at 4-5-0 in 9 starts.
Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said of the loss that "I thought our first period was good and then after that I didn't think we played good enough hockey. I thought we're fortunate to have the lead, to be honest, and we made a couple of mistakes, and the next thing you know it slips away from you. We've talked about learning lessons while we're winning. But sometimes you've got to get slapped in the face, and we got slapped in the face tonight."
The Red Wings play the second half of a back to back on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars, with Alex Nedeljkovic getting the start. The Blue Jackets face the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night, with Merzlikins likely starting again.
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