Conor Garland Scores Twice Again as Blue Jackets Beat Lightning 5-2 in Tampa
Conor Garland had his second straight two-goal game and Columbus scored three times in the second period to beat the slumping Lightning 5-2 at Benchmark International Arena.
TAMPA, Fla. — Four days into his Columbus career, Conor Garland already looks right at home. The forward scored twice for the second straight night on Tuesday, and the Blue Jackets turned a one-goal deficit into a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.
Ivan Provorov, Kirill Marchenko and Dante Fabbro also scored for Columbus, which extended its point streak to seven games at 4-0-3 and improved to 33-21-10. The Lightning fell to 39-20-4 and have now lost six of their past seven, according to NHL.com.
Goncalves Strikes First
Tampa Bay had the only goal of the first period. At 13:38, Gage Goncalves tipped a Victor Hedman slap shot in the slot past Elvis Merzlikins for a 1-0 lead. It was a welcome return for Goncalves, who had missed the previous four games with a lower-body injury, and the point gave him a career-high 21 on the season, according to NHL.com.
The lead did not survive the second period, and it did not take long to disappear.
Thirty Seconds That Flipped It
Provorov tied the game at 5:57 of the second with a one-timer from the blue line that went through traffic, deflecting off Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh on the way, according to the Associated Press. Thirty seconds later, Garland took a pass from Kent Johnson and slid a wrist shot from the slot through Andrei Vasilevskiy's five-hole for a 2-1 lead.
Columbus pushed the lead to two on the power play at 11:42, when Adam Fantilli set up Marchenko for a one-timer from the left circle. NHL.com noted Marchenko has nine points in a six-game point streak.
Tampa Bay answered before the end of the period. Anthony Cirelli won a faceoff and J.J. Moser fired a wrist shot from the point at 16:23 to cut the deficit to 3-2 heading into the third.
Garland Puts It Away
The Lightning never got the equalizer. Exactly four minutes into the third period, Sean Monahan set up Garland on the power play and he scored on a backhand to make it 4-2. Fabbro sealed it with an empty-net goal at 15:25.
Monahan and Zach Werenski each finished with two assists. Merzlikins made 16 saves and added an assist of his own, according to NHL.com, while Vasilevskiy made 26 saves for Tampa Bay.
Garland was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on March 6. According to the Associated Press, he had gone 24 straight games without a goal for Vancouver before the trade. In Columbus he has four goals in three games, and NHL.com noted it is the first time in his NHL career he has had multigoal games on consecutive nights.
He was hardly the only Blue Jacket on a heater. Charlie Coyle extended his own point streak to seven games, with one goal and eight assists in that span, and Monahan has six points over his past six games, according to NHL.com. On the Tampa Bay side, Nikita Kucherov picked up an assist and now has eight points during a three-game point streak, though it did little to slow the visitors.
"Just winning is what matters, it's the best time of year to play in," Garland said, according to NHL.com. Werenski summed up the new arrival more simply: "He plays the right way."
Bowness Likes the Details, Cooper Wants Out of the Rut
Columbus coach Rick Bowness pointed to how his team handled the puck. "The puck management was far better tonight than it's been," he said, according to NHL.com. The Blue Jackets are 15-2-3 in their past 20 games.
The mood was very different in the home room. Tampa Bay is 2-6 since the Olympic break and has allowed 34 goals in its past six games, according to the Associated Press, including six power-play goals in its past two. "This little rut we're in has lasted a lot longer than I anticipated," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said, according to NHL.com. Cirelli was blunter about the cause: "I think our execution was off."
Neither team has much time to sit on it. The Blue Jackets were set to visit the Florida Panthers on Thursday, while the Lightning were scheduled to host the Detroit Red Wings the same night, still looking for a way out of the worst stretch of their season.
Photo Credit: Samantha Diane/Undrafted
