Columbus Gets Back To Winning Ways; Zach Werenski Continues Home Scoring Streak

Zach Werenski(16), Dante Fabbro(4), and Kirill Marchenko(20) scored the goals for Columbus, and goaltender Elvis Merzļikins was phenomenal, stopping 31 of 33 Kings shots in the win.

This was a typical grind-it-out type of game. The LA Kings give absolutely nothing, and yet somehow the Jackets were able to take two points out of this game. The Jackets won the game, but LA controlled most of this game from start to finish.

The three best players on the team all had a hand in the win on Saturday night. Those players are Zach Werenski, Kirill Marchenko, and Elvis Merzļikins. Without these three players in particular, Columbus doesn't win this game.

What else can be said about Zach Werenski? He scored a goal, which was the 19th game in a row the young defenseman has got a point at home. He's now leading the entire NHL in points(54) and goals(16) by a defenseman and only sits two assists behind Quinn Hughes.

Kirill Marchenko scored his 20th goal and now has points in 10 of 11 games. He has 53 points in 50 games played season and is a plus-29. He has obliterated his career best of assists and points in a season and is on pace to do the same with goals.

Elvis Merzļikins has cranked his game up 5 notches in the last month. Elvis is 9-2-1 in his last 12 starts since Dec. 19, and 6-1-0 since Jan. 4 with a .917 SV%. With the win last night, he's now 18-11-3 and has 86 career wins. He's one win shy of former Jacket Joonas Korpisalo(87), and 10 wins back of Steve Mason, who sits second all-time with 96 career wins with Columbus.

The Jackets won the game in front of a season-high 18,919 fans. Dean Evason said of the crowd after the game, "It was fantastic, wasn't it? Right from the start. I’m not a huge Star Wars guy, but it certainly had a buzz tonight. They showed up and helped us win this hockey game."

Finals Stats

Player Stats

• Zach Werenski scored his 16th goal of the season, extending his home points streak to 19 games. He tied John Van Boxmeer for the 5th longest streak in NHL history. With the goal, he has overtaken Cale Makar in points by a defenseman and tied him with goals by a defenseman.

• Dante Fabbro scored his 4th goal of the year.

• Kirill Marchenko scored his team-high 20th goal of the season. He is now the only Blue Jacket in team history with 3 straight 20-goal seasons to start his career, and the 7th player to hit 20 goals in three consecutive seasons.

• Luca Del Bel Belluz picked up his 5th assist of the season. He's collected points in three straight games and has 7 points in his first 9 NHL games.

• Kent Johnson recorded his 17th assist.

• Damon Severson got his 14th assist on the season.

• James van Riemsdyk got his 11th assist.

• Ivan Provorov recorded his 18th assist.

• Justin Danforth picked up his 6th assist of the season.

• Elvis Merzļikins stopped 31 shots and was the game's first star.

Team Stats 

• The Columbus power play failed at its only man advantage of the game.

• The Jackets PK stopped LA's only power play. They've killed off the last 13 Kings power play tries in the series.

• The Blue Jackets won 42.3% of the faceoffs.

• The team is 9-1-2 in the last 12 home games and has won five straight.

What's Next: The Blue Jackets have a four-day break and will travel to Vegas next Thursday to play the Golden Knights.

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