Jenner's hat trick, Jiricek's first NHL goal lift Columbus Blue Jackets to first win
Boone Jenner’s second career hat trick and David Jiricek’s first NHL goal led the Blue Jackets to their first victory of the season Saturday at Nationwide Arena.
After allowing the game’s first goal against the New York Rangers, the Jackets scored four straight times to build a three-goal lead that paved the way to a 5-3 win and split of their first two games.
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Jenner scored twice in the first period to put the Blue Jackets up 2-1 and potted his third with 7:30 left in the second to make hats fly in the arena. Jiricek, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 NHL draft, scored his first career goal 1:37 later to put the Jackets up 4-1 on a wrist shot under the crossbar.
"Tonight was a big one for us," Jenner said. "We didn't like our game against Philly and another home one here on Saturday night, we wanted to come out with a lot better effort. So, I think everyone needed to ramp it up again tonight."
Justin Danforth completed the scoring for the Blue Jackets (1-1-0) with 4:06 left in the third.
Elvis Merzlikins started in net for Columbus and earned the win after making 24 saves in two periods of work before leaving due to illness. Spencer Martin took over for the third and made 15 saves on 17 shots to preserve the win. The Rangers, who had two goals overturned for missed offside violations, outshot the Blue Jackets 17-2 in the third period and 42-17 in the game.
Igor Shesterkin took the goaltending loss for the Rangers (1-1-0), whose goals were scored by Erik Gustafsson, rookie Will Cuylle and Chris Kreider.
"We played against a very good hockey team," Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. "The Rangers beat Buffalo the game before 5-1. It's a team that can create quite a bit, but we managed the game really well the first two periods and then we got a little tight in the third ... but I really liked the response."
Columbus Blue Jackets vs New York Rangers: play of the game
Standing in the low slot, Jenner scored his third goal by tipping Jake Bean’s shot from the point past Shesterkin. The play put the Blue Jackets up 3-1 with 7:30 left in the second period and gave Jenner his first hat trick since March 12, 2019.
Columbus Blue Jackets vs New York Rangers: notes
— Kent Johnson made his season debut for the Blue Jackets after watching the season-opener Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers as a healthy scratch. The highly skilled forward started out on the third line and was eager to get in the lineup.
“It obviously sucks,” Johnson said. “It’s brutal just watching and not being out there. I’m always confident, so I always feel like I could be helping the team. There’s not really much you can do about it. After it’s done, you’ve just got to keep going and keep working hard. It’s pretty motivating, even if I’m already motivated, so you just keep going.”
― Six combined goals were scored in the first period, but only three withstood video reviews. The Rangers had two goals overturned after coaching challenges showed that linesmen Tommy Hughes and James Tobias missed offside plays that preceded goals by Filip Chytil and Mika Zibanejad. Patrik Laine was credited with the goal the Blue Jackets had overturned. A video review showed the puck didn’t fully cross the goal line before it was swatted away by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba.
― Rookie Adam Fantilli was shifted from center to left wing and promoted to the top line to play with Patrik Laine and Alexandre Texier. Those three began training camp as the top line, but Fantilli was the center and Laine played right wing. Laine is transitioning to center, so it could help to flank him with wingers who’ve each had extensive experience playing center at lower levels.
— The Blue Jackets activated Mathieu Olivier from injured reserve Saturday and created a roster spot for him by designating forward Eric Robinson as a non-roster player and waiving him for the purpose of assignment to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. Olivier missed the last few weeks of last season plus the first half of training camp with an undisclosed leg injury before the Blue Jackets put him on IR to start the season. The injury didn’t fully heal in the offseason and continued to linger through camp.
“It took so long to get from where it was originally that we really wanted to be sure and cautious,” Olivier said. “With these things, sometimes a week makes a big difference. We tried it as a normal practice (Friday) and it was a good practice to test it out and get it going.”
Olivier received the go-ahead to return Saturday. Robinson started at left wing on the fourth line in the Jackets’ season-opening loss Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. He’ll be available to claim off waivers until Sunday at 2 p.m.
— Adam Boqvist, Liam Foudy and Jiricek also made season debuts for the Blue Jackets. Jiricek and Boqvist joined the blue line, while Foudy skated in Robinson’s spot at left wing on the fourth line. Boqvist stepped back into his role as quarterback of the top power play unit with Zach Werenski (contusion) on IR for at least a week.
Columbus Blue Jackets lineup vs New York Rangers
Forwards
Johnny Gaudreau – Boone Jenner – Kirill Marchenko
Adam Fantilli – Patrik Laine – Alexandre Texier
Kent Johnson – Cole Sillinger – Justin Danforth
Liam Foudy – Sean Kuraly – Mathieu Olivier
Defensemen
Jake Bean – Damon Severson
Ivan Provorov – David Jiricek
Adam Boqvist – Erik Gudbranson
Goalies
Elvis Merzlikins
Scott Martin
Scratched: Andrew Peeke, Jack Roslovic, Emil Bemstrom
Injured: Zach Werenski (quad contusion), Jordan Dumais (upper body)
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets down New York Rangers on Boone Jenner hat trick
