WASHINGTON — Boone Jenner scored his 19th goal with 44.4 seconds remaining and the Columbus Blue Jackets posted a wild 5-4 victory over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
Jenner scored less than two minutes after Washington’s Tom Wilson tied the game on a 6-on-5 chance. The Blue Jackets rallied from an early 2-0 deficit.
Patrik Laine scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season, Trey Fix-Wolansky gave Columbus its first lead in his NHL debut and Adam Boqvist added a goal and an assist.
Laine also assisted Jenner’s winner, and Gustav Nyquist had two assists, providing the key pass leading to Jenner’s back-hand finish past Ilya Samsonov.
Elvis Merzlikins made 29 stops for the Blue Jackets, who began a season-long, five-game road trip with their third consecutive road win.
Nic Dowd had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who lost their second in a row and for the fourth dtime in six games, all in regulation.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his 15th goal of the season and Wilson had his 19th. Garnet Hathaway also scored as Washington remained fourth in the Metropolitan Division, 16 points ahead of fifth-place Columbus.
Capitals all-time leading scorer Alex Ovechkin recorded his 30th assist in his return from the league’s COVID-19 protocol list.
With his team’s net empty, Wilson tied the game when he reached a loose puck not far in front of the crease after Vladislav Garikov’s poor clearance and wristed it past Merzlikins.
But as the Capitals pressured for a winner, they were caught out. Nyquist eventually found Jenner, who also had an assist, in close, and he scored past Samsonov’.
Both of Laine’s goals came on second-period power plays, the latter from a faceoff that beat Washington’s Pheonix Copley glove side, tying it at 3-all with four seconds left.
At 2:40 into the third, Fix-Wolansky chased Copley when he squeezed a one-time shot between the goaltender’s pads and across the line.
NOTES
Blue Jackets: Have come from behind in 13 of their 21 victories. … Conceded a power-play goal for just for the fifth time in 40 penalty kill opportunities. … Laine has scored two goals in three consecutive games. … Max Domi also had two assists.
Capitals: With his 557th point assisting Kuznetsov’s goal, John Carlson passed Dale Hunter for sixth-most in franchise history. … Ovechkin was originally placed in COVID protocol on Feb. 2. He missed one game and skipped this past weekend’s All-Star game festivities.
UP NEXT:
Blue Jackets: Visit Buffalo on Thursday night.
Capitals: Visit Montreal on Thursday night.
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