James van Riemsdyk Scores Two And Zach Werenski Continues Historic Home Points Streak As Blue Jackets Sink Sharks To Win 6th Straight Game

Adam Fantilli(11), Kent Johnson(12), and James van Riemsdyk(7,8) supplied the offense for Columbus, while Elvis Merzļikins stopped 18 San Jose Sharks shots en route to a 4-1 victory on Thursday inside a cold Nationwide Arena.

The Sharks only had 8 shots through two periods and were getting dominated until the dying seconds of the second period. The CBJ were called for a penalty at the end that would give the Sharks a power play to start the third. The Jackets were able to kill the penalty, but the Sharks were making their push and were making life hard on Columbus.

San Jose seemed to have the puck for minutes at a time and started pouring shots on a waiting Elvis. He was able to weather the storm until around 7 1/2 minutes in when the Sharks finally broke through and got a puck behind Merzļikins. Rookie Macklin Celebrini would get the puck along the boards and just fling a puck towards the net. The rebound was gathered up by veteran Tyler Toffoli who put it past Elvis. But that would be all the fish could muster against Columbus. The CBJ shut the game down to seal the win.

With the win and the two points, Columbus now sits in the wild card one spot with 50 points. They're also just five points back of Carolina, who are third in the Metro.

The Jackets are now 16-5-3 at home. Their 16 wins are tied for the second most in the Eastern Conference.

Columbus will now hit the road for four games which include stops at NYR, NYI, Toronto, and Carolina. These next four games will show what the Jackets have learned during this 6-game winning streak they're on, which included wins at Pittsburgh and St. Louis - Two locations in which they hardly ever win games.

Final Stats

Player Stats

• Adam Fantilli scored his 11th goal of the season.

• Kent Johnson scored his 12th goal of the year and collected his 14th assist.

• James van Riemsdyk scored his 7th and 8th goals of the season,

• Zach Werenski recorded his 36th assist. He now has an 18-game home points streak. He also had 7 shots and played almost 28 minutes.

• Kirill Marchenko got his 31st assist.

• Damon Severson tallied his 13th assist and was a plus-3 on the night.

• Sean Kuraly got his 7th assist.

• Elvis Merzļikins made 18 saves on 19 shots. He's now 16-10-3 on the season.

Team Stats

• The Jackets power play failed on two man advantages.

• The Columbus PK was perfect, stopping all three Sharks power plays. This season, they killed off seven PPs that the Sharks had.

• The Blue Jackets only won 40% of the faceoffs.

• Columbus is now 12-2-3 in the last 17 at home.

What's Next - The Blue Jackets travel to New York City to face the Rangers on Saturday.

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