The Columbus Blue Jackets entered the weekend looking for a spark in their race to the playoffs. Instead, they ran into a buzzsaw in Toronto on Saturday night.
Anthony Stolarz pitched a 27-save shutout to help lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-0 win over the Blue Jackets. Both Nick Robertson and William Nylander scored twice. Auston Matthews scored his 30th of the season giving him nine consecutive 30-goal seasons for the Maple Leafs.
For the Blue Jackets, the game didn’t start out bad. But mistakes did ultimately catch up to them.
Game Recap
The Blue Jackets came out flying in the first period. Overall, they played the kind of period that’s required in tight games. But a bad bounce helped the Maple Leafs to open the scoring.
Elvis Merzlikins’ pass hit Zach Werenski’s skates and deflected right to Robertson. He buried his 13th of the season to make it 1-0. After being a health scratch for some time, this was a much-needed game from Robertson as the Maple Leafs are looking to settle what their playoff lineup will look like.
The Blue Jackets outshot the Maple Leafs 11-8 in the first period. However, they couldn’t keep the momentum up in the second. The teams didn’t allow much in the middle of the ice. Then a turnover created Robertson’s second goal.
Max Domi was able to get the puck off Werenski. The bounce went right to Robertson who scored his 14th of the season to make it 2-0. Stolarz made it all stand up.
From there, the Blue Jackets faced an up-hill battle against a team in the Maple Leafs who are doing a better job of playing a shut down game. They got rewarded for their efforts in the third.
Nylander scored both of his goals in the third 3:10 apart to expand their lead to 4-0. He now has 44 goals on the season, second only to Leon Draisaitl.
Auston Matthews then put the finishing touches on the scoring finishing off a pass from Mitch Marner to make it 5-0. There were some chippy moments in the game. Steven Lorentz and Sean Kuraly had a fight. Simon Benoit fought Mathieu Olivier. Olivier also had a hit on Robertson that didn’t look good at first. Robertson appeared to be okay.
Merzlikins finished with 22 saves on the night. Stolarz recorded his second shutout of the season. He will improve on the 2.34 goals-against and .920 save percentage he came into the game with.
With the Canadiens 3-2 win over the Flyers, the Blue Jackets now trail the last wildcard spot by six points. They have a game in hand on Montreal. Both teams do play on Sunday with the Blue Jackets in Ottawa while the Canadiens have to travel to Nashville.
The Maple Leafs now own a four-point lead in the Atlantic. They head to Florida to take on the Panthers Tuesday night in Sunrise.