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
Brandon Hagel, LW Day-To-Day Apr 14
Darren Raddysh, D Day-To-Day Apr 14
Jonas Johansson, G Day-To-Day Apr 14
Pontus Holmberg, RW Out Apr 8
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 53 22 113 7
Pittsburgh 41 25 98 16
Philadelphia 43 27 98 12
Washington 43 30 95 9
Columbus 40 30 92 12
NY Islanders 43 34 91 5
New Jersey 42 37 87 3
NY Rangers 33 39 75 9

2025-26 Atlantic Division Standings

TEAM W L PTS OTL
Buffalo 50 23 108 8
Tampa Bay 50 25 106 6
Montreal 48 24 106 10
Boston 45 27 100 10
Ottawa 43 27 97 11
Detroit 41 30 92 10
Florida 39 38 82 4
Toronto 32 35 78 14
Full Standings