COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cam Atkinson scored on a penalty shot, Sergei Bobrovsky had 30 saves and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night.
Nick Foligno also scored after getting the winner Monday night as the Blue Jackets won their second straight and ended a six-game homestand on a high note. They are 3-2-1 in that stretch and hung on to second place in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind Washington.
Taylor Hall scored for the last-place Devils, and Mackenzie Blackwood, making his first NHL start on the first night of a back-to-back, had 36 saves.
Blackwood was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL on Monday after starter Cory Schneider went on injured reserve with an abdominal strain. Blackwood made his NHL debut the next day in relief of Keith Kinkaid, allowing two goals in a 7-2 loss to Toronto.
Blackwood got better as the evening wore on, but not before he allowed the only goals the Blue Jackets would need.
Columbus victimized him 4:17 into the game. Foligno camped out just to the right of the net, waited for a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois and tapped in a stunningly easy goal while Blackwood leaned the other way.
Columbus Blue Jackets center Pierre-Luc Dubois. (Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)
Blackwood didn’t look much better when Atkinson poked the puck past him on a penalty shot early in the second, awarded because New Jersey’s Damon Severson hooked Atkinson on a breakaway.
Hall went over the top of a diving Bobrovsky on a breakaway later in the second to score his 200th NHL goal and make it a 2-1 game.
Both goalies made some fantastic saves in the tense but scoreless third period, with Bobrovsky withstanding a 6-on-5 for the last two minutes and making his last stop just as the horn sounded.
NOTES: Atkinson has 20 goals in six straight seasons, the second Blue Jackets player to do that. Rick Nash did it eight straight times from 2003 to 2012. … Blackwood became the sixth goalie in NHL history to face a penalty shot in his first NHL start. … Devils D Steven Santini played his first game since Oct. 20 when he broke his jaw against Philadelphia. … Panarin’s return to the lineup resulted in a healthy scratch for Columbus F Lukas Sedlak. … With an assist on Foligno’s goal, Dubois has seven goals and 11 assists in his last 18 games. … Hall has 10 points in in his last nine games.
UP NEXT:
Devils: Hosts Ottawa on Friday night.
Blue Jackets: At Philadelphia on Saturday.
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Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press
