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Merzlikins' 40 saves help Columbus Blue Jackets' end five-game slide
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- Merzlikins' 40 saves help Columbus Blue Jackets' end five-game slide
Elvis Merzlikins made sure the Blue Jackets gained a little traction Thursday night at Nationwide Arena in a season that's starting to slip away.
More: Here's why the Columbus Blue Jackets returned goalie Jet Greaves to the AHL
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Backed by their goalie's sharpest performance of the season, a 40-save masterpiece while his team was outshot42-20, the Blue Jackets ended a five-game winless streak that was part of a 1-6-2 stretch that started after a 6-3 victory Dec. 1 in Chicago .
Down 3-0 starting the third period, the Devils pinned the puck into the Columbus zone and peppered Merzlikins with 18 shots — including two goals on seven shots and 23 attempts in the final five-plus minutes played with an empty net for a 6-on-5 advantage.
"I was feeling the puck, I was feeling good," Merzlikins said. "Overall, the whole team, we did an amazing job. In the end, we were battling really hard. The guys were blocking a lot of shots. The first two periods were awesome. We were fast, quick, physical. We were playing our game, so that's good."
The Blue Jackets built their 3-0 lead in the first two periods with timely goals to go with Merzlikins' work in net.
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Ivan Provorov gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 7:55 of the first period, goals in the second by Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan created a three-goal cushion for the third, when Monahan's second goal of the game — scored into an empty net with 1:10 left to play — finally sealed the win after 6-on-5 goals by Luke Hughes and Nico Hischier that nearly spoiled Merzlikins' night.
Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins makes a save against the Devils on Thursday.
Hughes' goal ruined a shutout bid, capping a frenetic scramble around the Jackets' net with 2:50 left to play. His brother, Jack Hughes , fired 13 shots on goal at Merzlikins on a jaw-dropping 22 attempts — matching former Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp (Oct. 15, 2010) for most shots by an opponent against the Blue Jackets in a single game.
Merzlikins got a lift from the crowd at the end to help author the Jackets' upset of the top team in the Metropolitan Division, drawing a boost from hearing his name chanted. After backing up Jet Greaves in three of the previous four games, Merzlikins shined one day after his rookie counterpart was loaned back to the AHL's Cleveland Monsters.
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Merzlikins made seven stops in the first period, a whopping 17 in the second and 16 more in the third to frustrate the Devils, who finished the game with dominant margins in shots (42-20) and attempts (97-42). Merzlikins' two biggest stops happened in the second to deny goals by Jack Hughes, the Devils' top center and second-leading scorer with 41 points on 13 goals and 28 assists.
Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins (90) skates around the net during the second period of the NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Dec. 19, 2024.
The first was a glove save off a shot from the right circle, in which Merzlikins just got his arm up in time to snare the puck while sprawled on the ice. The second was a pad/blocker save made while lunging to his right while doing the splits to block Hughes' shot from the left wing.
"He responded by stopping the puck," Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. "That's his job, right? And he did it very well tonight. ... Yeah, he had a couple flashy saves, obviously, that he had to stretch over and get, but for the most part he was just calm and got the job done."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Elvis Merzlikins leads Columbus Blue Jackets past New Jersey Devils
