The New York Rangers came into Nationwide Arena on Sunday on a 10-game heater, but the Blue Jackets came out swinging.
Literally.
Barely two minutes into it, Mathieu Olivier squared off with New York 's Matthew Rempe ― who'd recently made a name for himself as a rookie brawler ― and the Blue Jackets' power forward brought a sellout crowd of 18,293 to its feet by decidedly knocking his opponent off his.
A couple minutes later, Dmitri Voronkov's 16th goal of the season gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead to begin what became the end of the Rangers ' 10-game winning streak. Despite coughing up two one-goal leads, the Jackets built a two-goal cushion after two periods and made it stand up in the third for a 4-2 victory to take a lead in the season series (2-0-1) with one game left Wednesday in New York.
It was the second time in franchise history the Blue Jackets have ended a double-digit winning streak. They first did it in 2016-17, stopping the Minnesota Wild 's 12-game streak on the way to their own franchise record 16-game winning streak.
"We knew we were going to be ready," Olivier said. "There's not a better challenge than that. You get a team that can't seem to lose, they're doing well and they're getting ready to be in playoff mode and all that, so for us it was a good opportunity to rise to the occasion, and as a full team we did that."
Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko and Jack Roslovic each finished with a goal and assist, Johnny Gaudreau added two points with assists and Elvis Merzlikins made 38 saves for the win in net. Former Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin and Adam Edstrom scored goals for the Rangers (39-17-3), who started former Blue Jackets goalie Jonathan Quick .
Here are four takeaways:
Prior to the game, Olivier and Rempe spoke during warmups while stretching near the red line.
The subject of their conversation centered on Rempe's fight Saturday against Philadelphia Flyers enforcer Nicholas Deslaurier, which left both combatants with bruises in the shape of fists on their faces.
"To be honest, I just told him, 'Great tilt yesterday and I hope you're doing alright, because that was a tough one,'" Olivier said. "He said, 'Yeah, I'm good,' so first shift he came and asked me. There's a lot of respect there for doing that. Kudos to him. He's doing a good job getting noticed, so that takes, uh, for lack of a better word, that takes some (guts)."
Olivier showed why after they dropped the gloves, landing 13 punches that landed either on the towering rookie's head or face. Rempe landed six, but only two left damage on Olivier's nose and cheek. Rempe, meanwhile, was sent to the locker room for concussion protocols before returning late in the first period.
After connecting with an upper cut followed by three straight rights, Olivier mercifully grabbed Rempe and took him to the ice to end it. A little more than two minutes later, Olivier watched from the penalty box as Voronkov gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from outside the left post.
"It's as good as it gets," Olivier said. "Maybe getting one yourself would be better. I've been working on that a little bit. It's not going my way this year, but it's a good feeling for sure to get our team going there and I think it worked."
Olivier's fight also set an early tone, sending a message that New York, concluding a back-to-back, had its hands full trying to win an 11thstraight game.
Asked after the game if he's starting to figure the NHL out, Voronkov first let a translator relay his initial answer spoken in Russian.
"I feel like it's pretty good now," he said.
The 6-foot-5, 240-pound rookie center then turned to the reporter who asked the question, smiled and said in English: "Better."
It was fitting to hear from the Blue Jackets' biggest center, who has steadily improved over the course of the season. After needing some time to get his bearings in a faster league with better talent and a smaller ice surface than Russia's Kontinenal Hockey League, Voronkov is now much "better" for the Blue Jackets.
The Rangers were the latest team to find that out firsthand. Voronkov led all skaters with seven shots on 11 attempts and held his own on draws (42%) against one of the NHL's top faceoff teams.
He finished with a goal and assist for two points to increase his season totals to 16 goals, 14 assists and 30 points in 51 games. Voronkov moved to one goal behind Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard and Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi for the NHL lead in goals among rookie skaters. He's fourth in points, sitting 10 back of Bedard for the rookie scoring lead.
"It's really impressive," Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. "This guy doesn't speak a whole lot. He's speaking a little bit more now, but his hockey sense is off the charts. For the things he does on the ice, he's rarely in a bad position when we have the puck, or we don't have the puck. He's able to make the adjustments. It's pretty impressive."
The number of blown leads in the third periods of games they've lost this season should be ingrained in the Blue Jackets' minds. It's 13 leads they've fumbled in 12 games that ended in defeat, including their previous matchup against the Rangers on Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden. That one slipped away with a Rangers goal scored in the waning seconds of regulation that sent the game to overtime and then a shootout.
The Jackets made sure that didn't happen again despite being outshot 18-11 while protecting a two-goal lead in the third. Voronkov also took a penalty for mistakenly covering the puck with his hand during a faceoff — something that's allowed in the KHL — to give the Rangers at 6-on-4 advantage with an empty net with more 2:23 left to play.
"We're growing," Vincent said. "We just learned from the past. We've had more success recently. There's more confidence. We're not just giving time and space just to make sure we don't get beat. We still pressure when we can, we still make plays when we can, but we also manage the puck properly when under pressure. It's a team that is learning and tonight was a result of those setbacks."
Merzlikins also came up with key stops to preserve the lead, including a dazzling left pad save against Jimmy Vesey to nix a 2-on-1 rush.
"He was really good in the third," Vincent said. "He was in control. ... He showed some poise. His reads were good, the 2-on-1 he was there on time. He was really good tonight."
Now playing with more of a direct vertical North-South style, the Blue Jackets' all-Russian line of Yegor Chinakhov, Voronkov and Marchenko is again thriving. They were Vincent's most successful line against the Rangers in the 9:52 of 5-on-5 they played together.
During that time, the Jackets' "Russian line" netted Marchenko's goal to put Columbus up 2-1 just 18 seconds into the second and finished with dominant secondary measures. According to Natural Stat Trick , the Blue Jackets had 73.5% of the game's attempts, 75% of unblocked attempts, 80% of shots on goal, 70% of scoring chances (14-6) and 100% of high-danger chances (7-0) with those three in the game together.
Sticking with a North-South approach is the key, especially coming up the ice on breakouts.
"They were really good at first (in December), and then they started to play a game that is not appropriate for the NHL," Vincent said. "That's OK. They're young players, three of them. It's fine. So, when we put them back together, we told them, 'Listen, there's a way (to play) and now you have a little bit more experience.' There's a time and place to make those plays, and they're able to do it."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets halt New York Rangers' win streak: 4 takeaways
