NHL

Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning

· National Hockey League
Final
5 - 2

Conor Garland scores 2 to send Blue Jackets past Lightning, 5-2

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Tampa Bay Lightning: Game Highlights

Kiril Marchenko, Dante Fabbro and Ivan Provorov also scored for Columbus, who improved to 15-2-3 in the past 20 games. Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made 15 saves and registered his second assist of the season.

Gage Goncalves and J.J. Moser scored for Tampa Bay, which fell to 2-6 since the Olympic break and has just one win in the past seven games. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 26 saves. The Lightning have allowed 34 goals in the past six games and six power-play goals in the past two games.

Garland, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline, had not scored a goal in his previous 24 games with Vancouver. But after scoring twice on Monday against Los Angeles, Garland had two more on Tuesday, including an insurance power-play goal in the third period.

Tampa Bay took the first-period lead when Nikita Kucherov sent a fake-shot pass across the ice to Goncalves for the one-touch pass to Victor Hedman, whose slap shot was tipped by Goncalves at 13:38.

Provorov and Garland scored goals 30 seconds apart to give the Blue Jackets the lead. Provorov sent a center point shot toward goal that hit Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh and deflected into the net at 5:57. Garland scored his third in the past two games at 6:27.

Marchenko scored a power-play goal at 11:42. Moser cut the deficit to one with a wrist shot at 16:23 of the second period. Fabbro scored into an empty net with 4:32 left.

Up next Blue Jackets: At Florida on Thursday.

Lightning: Host Detroit on Thursday.

Regular Season Series

CBJ win series 3-0

Scoring Summary

Goal 1st Period 13:38 Gage Goncalves Goal (8) Tip-In, assists: Victor Hedman (15), Nikita Kucherov (70)
Goal 2nd Period 5:57 Ivan Provorov Goal (8) Slap Shot, assists: Denton Mateychuk (17), Charlie Coyle (35)
Goal 2nd Period 6:27 Conor Garland Goal (10) Wrist Shot, assists: Kent Johnson (14), Sean Monahan (20)
Goal 2nd Period 11:42 Kirill Marchenko Goal (24) Slap Shot, assists: Adam Fantilli (27), Zach Werenski (47)
Goal 2nd Period 16:23 J.J. Moser Goal (7) Wrist Shot, assists: Anthony Cirelli (24)
Goal 3rd Period 4:00 Conor Garland Goal (11) Wrist Shot, assists: Sean Monahan (21), Zach Werenski (48)
Goal 3rd Period 15:28 Dante Fabbro Goal (5) Wrist Shot, assists: Elvis Merzlikins (2)

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/cbj.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originCBJ https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/nhl/500/tb.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originTB
15 Blocked Shots 8
21 Hits 29
9 Takeaways 2
32 Shots 18
2 Power Play Goals 0
4 Power Play Opportunities 3
50.0 Power Play Percentage 0.0
0 Short Handed Goals 0
0 Shootout Goals 0
24 Faceoffs Won 31
43.6 Faceoff Win Percent 56.4
17 Giveaways 11
5 Total Penalties 6
13 Penalty Minutes 15
Tampa Bay Lightning Tampa Bay Lightning Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE
Victor Hedman, D Day-To-Day Mar 22
Maxwell Crozier, D Injured Reserve Mar 19
Declan Carlile, D Injured Reserve Mar 14
Dominic James, C Injured Reserve Mar 5
Columbus Blue Jackets Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries
NAME, POS STATUS DATE

Game Information

Benchmark International Arena

Location: Tampa, FL
Attendance: 19,092 | Capacity:

2025-26 Metropolitan Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Carolina 45 19 96 6
Pittsburgh 35 19 86 16
Columbus 37 22 85 11
NY Islanders 40 26 85 5
Philadelphia 34 23 80 12
Washington 35 27 79 9
New Jersey 35 32 72 2
NY Rangers 28 34 65 9

2025-26 Atlantic Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Buffalo 44 20 95 7
Tampa Bay 43 21 91 5
Montreal 38 21 86 10
Boston 39 23 86 8
Detroit 38 24 84 8
Ottawa 37 24 83 9
Florida 34 32 71 3
Toronto 29 29 71 13
Full Standings