Columbus Blue Jackets at Tampa Bay Lightning
· National Hockey LeagueConor Garland scores 2 to send Blue Jackets past Lightning, 5-2
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.
Lightning: Host Detroit on Thursday.
Regular Season SeriesCBJ win series 3-0
Scoring Summary
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Goal | 1st Period 13:38 | Gage Goncalves Goal (8) Tip-In, assists: Victor Hedman (15), Nikita Kucherov (70) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 5:57 | Ivan Provorov Goal (8) Slap Shot, assists: Denton Mateychuk (17), Charlie Coyle (35) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 6:27 | Conor Garland Goal (10) Wrist Shot, assists: Kent Johnson (14), Sean Monahan (20) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 11:42 | Kirill Marchenko Goal (24) Slap Shot, assists: Adam Fantilli (27), Zach Werenski (47) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 16:23 | J.J. Moser Goal (7) Wrist Shot, assists: Anthony Cirelli (24) |
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Goal | 3rd Period 4:00 | Conor Garland Goal (11) Wrist Shot, assists: Sean Monahan (21), Zach Werenski (48) |
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Goal | 3rd Period 15:28 | Dante Fabbro Goal (5) Wrist Shot, assists: Elvis Merzlikins (2) |
Statistics
CBJ |
TB |
|
|---|---|---|
| 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 Injuries
| NAME, POS | STATUS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Zemgus Girgensons, C | Day-To-Day | Mar 14 |
| Declan Carlile, D | Injured Reserve | Mar 14 |
| Emil Lilleberg, D | Out | Mar 7 |
| Dominic James, C | Injured Reserve | Mar 5 |
Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries
| NAME, POS | STATUS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Erik Gudbranson, D | Out | Mar 14 |
Game Information
Benchmark International Arena
Location: Tampa, FL
Attendance: 19,092 | Capacity:
Location: Tampa, FL
Attendance: 19,092 | Capacity:
2025-26 Metropolitan Division Standings
| TEAM | W | L | PTS | OTL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Carolina |
42 | 18 | 90 | 6 |
NY Islanders |
38 | 24 | 81 | 5 |
Pittsburgh |
32 | 18 | 79 | 15 |
Columbus |
33 | 21 | 77 | 11 |
Washington |
33 | 27 | 74 | 8 |
Philadelphia |
31 | 23 | 73 | 11 |
New Jersey |
33 | 31 | 68 | 2 |
NY Rangers |
28 | 30 | 64 | 8 |
2025-26 Atlantic Division Standings
| TEAM | W | L | PTS | OTL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Buffalo |
41 | 20 | 88 | 6 |
Tampa Bay |
40 | 21 | 84 | 4 |
Montreal |
36 | 19 | 82 | 10 |
Boston |
37 | 23 | 80 | 6 |
Detroit |
36 | 23 | 79 | 7 |
Ottawa |
33 | 23 | 75 | 9 |
Florida |
33 | 29 | 69 | 3 |
Toronto |
28 | 27 | 68 | 12 |




CBJ
TB
Carolina
NY Islanders
Pittsburgh
Columbus
Washington
Philadelphia
New Jersey
NY Rangers
Buffalo
Tampa Bay
Montreal
Boston
Detroit
Ottawa
Florida
Toronto