Elvis Merzļikins Frustrates Jack Hughes As The Blue Jackets Upset Metro Leading Devils

Ivan Provorov(3), Zach Werenski(11), and Sean Monahan(10, 11) scored the goals for the CBJ, while Elvis Merzļikins played what was arguably his best game of the year by making 40 saves in the Columbus win.

Yes, the Blue Jackets won and had to hold off the Devils late after they scored a pair of 6-on-5 goals, but the story of the night was the otherworldly play of goaltender Elvis Merzļikins. Without Elvis, the game would've been out of hand tonight.

Merzļikins had to stop shot after Devil shot all night long, including 13 by superstar Jack Hughes, and six from his brother Luke. If you just sat back and looked at the stats, you would think the Devils won this game 9-2.

Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Devils had a Corsi share of 69.3%, 97 total shot attempts, and 45 total shots on goal. They out-chanced Columbus 55-18 and had 23 high-danger chances to the Jackets 7. Their expected goal share was 5.69 to the Blue Jackets 2.76. Elvis Merzļikins won this game.

After the game, Zach Werenski said about Elvis, "Elvis stood tall!" 

He also said, "We talked about it - obviously, it hasn't been good enough lately. I felt like we played really hard tonight."

Elvis Merzļikins had Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils extremely frustrated all game long.

Final Stats

Player Stats

• Sean Monahan scored goals 10 and 11 and collected assist #17.

• Zach Werenski scored his 11th goal of the season. He leads all NHL defensemen in goals. He also has a 10-game home-point streak

• Ivan Provorov scored his 3rd goal of the season.

• Kirill Marchenko tallied two assists on the night. He now has 100 career NHL points.

• Mathieu Olivier had an assist, 4 blocks, 3 hits, and 2 shots.

• Dmitri Voronkov recorded an assist.

• Zach Aston-Reese got his 7th assist on the night.

• Elvis Merzļikins made 40 saves and recorded his 10th win of the season.

Team Stats

• The CBJ power play went 1/2. They are now 6-of-23 in the last 7 games on the PP.

• The Jackets' PK shut out the Devils power play.

• Columbus won 50.8% of the faceoffs.

• The Blue Jackets are now 8-2-3 in the last 13 games at home.

What's Next - The Blue Jackets face the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.

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