Columbus Blue Jackets outskated by Ottawa Senators in road romp

On Mar 5, 2023

Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) protects the puck in front of Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins (90) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, March 4, 2023 in Ottawa, Ontario. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

This one wasn’t as close as the final score may indicate.

Despite pulling within two goals starting the third period Saturday night in Kanata, Ontario, the Blue Jackets took a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators straight to the chin at Canadian Tire Centre. They dropped both ends of a back-to-back that began with a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Friday in Columbus.

Ottawa dominated from start-to-finish, building two three-goal leads while outshooting Columbus 39-21 on a night that began with a pregame ceremony to honor former Blue Jackets forward Derrick Brassard’s 1,000^th NHL game — which he played Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

“You knew they were coming, there was no secret,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “They’re excited to play right now. They’re in a playoff hunt. They’ve been playing a real good brand of hockey for a while. We were very aware of what was coming. We just didn’t handle it very well.”

Jack Roslovic and Patrik Laine scored for the Blue Jackets (20-37-6), who had Elvis Merzlikins take the loss in net after allowing four goals on 23 shots. Merzlikins, making his first back-to-back starts of the season, was replaced five minutes into the second by recently-acquired backup Michael Hutchinson, who made his Blue Jackets debut by stopping 15 of 16 shots.

Tim Stutzle and Travis Hamonic each scored twice to lead the Senators (32-26-4), who won their fifth straight game and improved to 11-3-1 in their past 15 to remain in the chase for a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

“We just played a (bad) game, that’s it,” Laine said. “You can’t expect to win against anyone with that kind of game that we played, so that’s about it.”

Ottawa outshot Columbus 15-3 in the first, 13-8 in the second and 11-10 in the third, helping goalie Cam Talbot earn the goaltending win with just 19 saves.

Hamonic and Roslovic traded goals 18 seconds apart to open the scoring a little more than five minutes into the game, but Stutzle’s goal at 11:18 of the first gave Ottawa a 2-1 lead starting the second. Ottawa then extended the lead to 4-1 in the second on Hamonic’s second of the game, scored at 2:16, followed 48 seconds later by newly-acquired defenseman Jakob Chychrun’s first goal as a Senator.

Laine capped a power play 10:56 of the second cut it to 4-2, giving rookie Kirill Marchenko his second career assist as a reward for stripping Stutzle, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Stutzle completed the scoring in the third with a breakaway goal that followed what could’ve been a minor penalty on the Senators’ Mathieu Jospeh, who tripped Blue Jackets rookie defenseman Nick Blankenburg to force the turnover. That might’ve allowed the Blue Jackets to tack on another power-play goal, but it wouldn’t have affected the outcome.