*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Sometimes, one goal does the trick. Dmitri Voronkov broke the scoreless tie as Elvis Merzlikins shined in net, leading the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 1-0 shutout win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night in St. Louis.
Winning for just the 3rd time in their last 10 games, it was Merzlikins who carried the load in the game, recording his first shutout in over two years, with his last one coming against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 13, 2022. They end a 5 game road trip with a 2-2-1 record.
Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent said of the win that "They’re all in. And they want to do things right and it’s like we’re growing as a team. The team chemistry is getting better and better. And they had to dig in. They had to really dig deep in order to compete today and do it the proper way. And that’s what they did. And most importantly I feel they do it for each other."
The first two periods of the game went scoreless, but the Blue Jackets finally broke through in the 3rd period. Voronkov scored his 12th goal of the season to make it 1-0 Blue Jackets with assists from Zach Werenski and Johnny Gaudreau.
With the win and shutout for Merzlikins in goal, he ups his record to 9-10-7 over 28 starts this season. Merzlikins stopped all 21 shots the Blues sent his way as he picked up the 10th shutout of his career, with the first 5 coming in his rookie season of 2019-2020.
Asked about the shutout, Merzlikins said that "It was amazing. I’m really happy and this is perfect way how to end this for before this break. Not gonna lie, we are all really tired. Even this morning at breakfast when I walked down, it was silent. We are done. We want to go home now. And it’s really nice."
Getting the start in goal for the Blues was Jordan Binnington, who was the tough luck loser as his record fell to 17-13-2 in 33 starts. Binnington made 21 saves out of the 22 shots the Blue Jackets had, good for a .955 save percentage.
Blues interim head coach Drew Bannister said of the loss that "We didn't play well enough to win a hockey game here tonight, no question about that. The first period, we weren't skating, we weren't engaged at all. The second period, I thought we started to skate a little bit more, but we were playing cute hockey, and cute hockey doesn't win at this level."
Both teams get back in action on February 10 after the all star break and the bye week for both squads. The Blue Jackets play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Blues hit the road to take on the Buffalo Sabres.
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