NHL

Toronto Maple Leafs at Columbus Blue Jackets

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Final
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Blue Jackets top Toronto 4-3 on Laine OT goal

Adam Boqvist and Brendan Gaunce also scored for Columbus, while Jean-Francois Berube stopped 39 shots and recorded his first NHL assist in his second straight win. The Blue Jackets have won eight of their last 10 games.

“They believe they can win and that goes a long way,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “There is not a magic formula. They are good players and they are dangerous.”

Auston Matthews had a goal and two assists, Michael Bunting had a goal and an assist, and Jason Spezza added a goal for Toronto, which lost its third straight. Jack Campbell stopped 26 shots in the loss, which kept the Maple Leafs in third place in the Atlantic Division.

Bunting put Toronto on the board at 12:50 of the first period, tapping in a feed from Mitch Marner after a Columbus turnover.

Laine pulled Columbus even and extended his points streak to 10 games with a wrister off a drop pass from Boone Jenner that beat Campbell at 6:13 of the second.

“Right now there is a feeling we are going to get another chance, and there is a good chance it might go in,” Laine said.

Matthews gave Toronto the lead again at 15:23 with his team-leading 34th goal and 61st point of the season, off a feed from David Kampf that caught a reaching Berube looking.

“We’re leaving the rink a little bit sour, but I thought we did a lot of good things tonight,” Matthews said.

Boqvist made it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 1:05 of the third, taking a feed from Berube and skating through a pair of Maple Leafs defenders and giving Berube the first point of his NHL career.

Gaunce then grabbed a blueline turnover and raced the length of the ice to score for the second straight game and make it 3-2 at 7:13 of the third.

Spezza tied the game 3-3 with 2:06 remaining and Toronto with an extra skater.

“I thought our guys competed hard, played with structure," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "(We) easily could have had two points here.”

COMING BACK

The Blue Jackets have come from behind in 16 of their 26 wins, including six of their last eight victories.

ON POINT

Laine has points in 10 straight games, including 12 goals, and eight of those games have been multi-point efforts. With his assist on Laine’s goal, Boone Jenner extended his assist streak to four games and notched his team-leading 40th point of the season. With the secondary assist, Zach Werenski extended his points streak to five consecutive games (2-5-7). Werenski is now two points shy of tying Seth Jones’ franchise mark for points by a defenseman (223).

SUIT UP

Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin wore a Maple Leafs sweater for the first time since coming over from the Arizona Coyotes along with forward Ryan Dzingel.

INJURY UPDATE

Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin did not travel to Columbus and is in concussion protocols after leaving Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. He hit his head on the ice following a collision with Chris Wideman.

UP NEXT

Maple Leafs: Host Minnesota Thursday night.

Blue Jackets: At Florida Thursday night.

Regular Season Series

Series tied 1-1

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 12:50
Goal 2nd Period 6:13
Goal 2nd Period 15:23
Goal 3rd Period 1:05
Goal 3rd Period 7:13
Goal 3rd Period 17:54
Goal 4th Period 0:20

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/tor.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originTOR https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/cbj.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originCBJ
10 Blocked Shots 20
11 Hits 24
8 Takeaways 8
42 Shots 30
0 Power Play Goals 1
3 Power Play Opportunities 2
0.0 Power Play Percentage 50.0
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
29 Faceoffs Won 34
46.0 Faceoff Win Percent 54.0
1 Giveaways 9
2 Total Penalties 3
4 Penalty Minutes 6
Columbus Blue Jackets Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Denton Mateychuk, D Day-To-Day Jan 18
Miles Wood, LW Injured Reserve Jan 1
Isac Lundestrom, C Injured Reserve Dec 30
Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Simon Benoit, D Day-To-Day Jan 18
William Nylander, RW Out Jan 17
Dakota Mermis, D Injured Reserve Jan 12
Anthony Stolarz, G Injured Reserve Jan 10
Chris Tanev, D Injured Reserve Dec 31

Game Information

Nationwide Arena

Location: Columbus, OH
Attendance: 15,489 | Capacity:

2025-26 Atlantic Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Tampa Bay 30 13 64 4
Detroit 30 16 64 4
Montreal 27 15 61 7
Boston 28 19 58 2
Buffalo 26 16 57 5
Toronto 24 16 56 8
Florida 25 19 53 3
Ottawa 22 19 51 7

2025-26 Metropolitan Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Carolina 30 15 64 4
NY Islanders 26 17 57 5
Pittsburgh 22 14 55 11
Washington 24 19 54 6
Philadelphia 22 17 52 8
Columbus 22 19 51 7
New Jersey 24 22 50 2
NY Rangers 21 22 48 6
Full Standings