Blue Jackets heating up ahead of road game vs. Senators
The Columbus Blue Jackets visit the Ottawa Senators on Monday night fresh off a come-from-behind victory and the winners of two straight.
Trailing 2-1, the Blue Jackets rallied for three goals in the third period on Sunday for a 4-2 victory over the visiting New York Islanders.
"I love the way we played in the third period, that was awesome. Fans were into it and that was great," said Mason Marchment, who recorded one assist on Sunday and has three goals and an assist in three games with Columbus since being acquired from the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 19.
His linemate, Kirill Marchenko, scored twice, including the go-ahead goal with 3:19 left.
"We just try to find our way," Marchenko said. "We communicate a lot and we just do it for each other. It's nice we can score at the end of the game."
His goal came 1:14 after Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov tied the contest 2-2.
"We got to our game early. I really liked the way my line played," said Adam Fantilli, who centers the line with Marchment and Marchenko. "We stuck with it the whole game, just a lot of line mismatches with penalties and stuff, but I like how we got back to our game every single time. We played hard, we played fast, we played the right way, and it really benefited us."
Cole Sillinger added an empty-net goal with 1:06 remaining.
Sean Monahan and defenseman Denton Mateychuk had two assists each and Jet Greaves made 24 saves.
The Senators had their five-game point streak (3-0-2) snapped on Saturday night in a 7-5 loss to the host Toronto Maple Leafs.
The game was the first for both teams following the three-day Christmas break.
"It was one of those games where you haven't skated in three days, you're on a break, if you get tired, you're going to be in trouble," Ottawa coach Travis Green said. "Some of our shifts were longer because we turned over the puck not just in our zone or the neutral zone but in the offensive zone. Then you have to backcheck and play in your own zone for a while."
The Senators battled back from a 2-0 first-period deficit to tie the contest early in the second, only to see the Maple Leafs score three times in the middle period to make it 5-2 after 40 minutes.
"I really liked our first period, liked our third, didn't like our second," Green said.
Ottawa's Tim Stutzle stayed hot with a goal to extend his point streak to nine games (16 points on eight goals and eight assists) and his goal streak to four games. He had one in each contest.
Defenseman Jordan Spence had a goal and an assist while Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig and Drake Batherson also scored for Ottawa on Saturday.
Claude Giroux celebrated his 1,300th career NHL game with two assists and Stephen Halliday also had two helpers.
Linus Ullmark gave up four goals on 14 shots before being pulled in the second period in favor of Leevi Merilainen, who made 16 saves.
The Senators defeated the Blue Jackets 6-3 in Columbus on Dec. 11.