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COLUMBUS
Peter Budaj Jersey Womens , Ohio (AP) The Blue Jackets only had Seth Jones for two periods. It turned out to be more than enough.Jones was the
driving force behind two first-period power-play goals, and Columbus won its
fifth straight, 5-2 over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.”We’re taking it
game by game even with this winning streak,” said Alexander Wennberg, who tied a
career high with four points on a goal and three assists. ”We’re playing good,
we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves. You just face the challenge.”Nick
Foligno, Boone Jenner and Ian Cole also scored for Columbus.Behind a run of
eight wins in 11 games overall and a season-high six straight at home –
including a just-completed four-game homestand – the Blue Jackets moved past
idle New Jersey into the first wild-card position in the Eastern Conference.
Columbus also edged within two points of third-place Philadelphia, its next
opponent, in the Metropolitan Division.”We’ve got a huge one coming up in
Philly,” Foligno said.Jones sat out the third period with an upper-body
injury
Andrew Hammond Jersey Womens , and Montreal suddenly put Sergei Bobrovsky to the test. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner stopped all 24 shots the suddenly
energetic Canadiens threw his way. He had 38 saves overall.”We lose Jonsey,
which is a big part of or tempo and our transition,” coach John Tortorella said.
”You know it’s going that way when we don’t score our goals. We have a number of
great chances to make it five. You know what the third period is going to be.
They are going to take every chance they possibly can. But I still thought we
were on our heels too much.”Tortorella said Jones pleaded his case to play in
the third.Brendan Gallagher and Jonathan Drouin scored for banged-up Montreal,
which has lost five straight and has three wins in its past 16 games.The
Canadiens have been playing without Carey Price, Max Pacioretty and Shea Weber.
Charlie Lindgren was weak on his glove side, finishing with 20 stops while
battling traffic in front.A bright spot for Montreal came early. Gallagher
scored the fastest goal against Columbus this season to start a game, only 34
seconds in. He redirected a high shot alone at the crease for his team-leading
25th.”The first shift, a turnover and they score it,” Tortorella said. ”It
didn’t affect us. We just kept on playing.”Columbus tallied the next three to
close out the period.Foligno countered four minutes later on a steal in the
Canadiens’ zone. His backdoor pass to Oliver Bjorkstrand ping-ponged off two
Montreal players and skidded into the net.Jones then helped add two more for the
Blue Jackets, giving him four goals – three of them game-winners – and three
assists in his last three games. He set up Wennberg’s tip-in goal at 7:51 and
scored his own at 14:03
J.T. Brown Jersey Womens , his 14th this season. Jones’ 48 points are three short of the franchise record for a blueliner, set in 2013-14 by James
Wisniewski.”I’d like to see our guys do a much better job when it comes to
fronting pucks,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. ”Lindy had a bit of a tough
night, and your best penalty killer can also be your goaltender.”Early in the
second period, not long after Zach Werenski saved a goal by swiping away the
puck before it could cross the goal line, Jenner stuffed home his own rebound,
the entire play nicely set up by Wennberg.Drouin scored on a breakaway – spurned
by a blocked shot – at 15:46 of the second with a backhander to pull the
Canadiens within two.Cole capped the scoring with a floating wrister with 2:19
left in the game.”We just feel good about ourselves and the way we’re playing
hockey,” Jenner said. ”You can see tonight if we play the way we can, we can
kind of dominate teams.”NOTES: Columbus scored its three first-period goals on
its first seven shots. … Jones has a goal in three straight games. He scored
twice Friday against Detroit. … The Canadiens dropped to 9-22-4 on the road. …
Montreal wrapped up its six-game trip with a 1-4-1 mark and allowed nine
power-play goals.UP NEXTColumbus: At Philadelphia on Thursday.Montreal: Hosts
Dallas on Tuesday.— WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) Dion Phaneuf is fitting in nicely
with the Los Angeles Kings.The veteran defenseman scored on the power play for
his third goal in four games with Los Angeles
Tomas Plekanec Jersey Womens , helping the Kings cap a seven-game road trip with a 4-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.Alec Martinez
also scored with the man advantage and Dustin Brown’s goal late in the third
period stood as the winner. Torrey Mitchell had the other goal for the Kings,
and Darcy Kuemper stopped 30 shots.Article continues below ...”Why are we
calling them (Martinez and Phaneuf) the second unit?” Los Angeles coach John
Stevens quipped. ”They were the first unit tonight.”I thought they were
terrific. They had a game plan. They moved the puck quickly and they came up
with a lot of loose pucks. Dion’s been a good fit there. He wants to shoot the
puck all the time.”Anze Kopitar picked up an assist on Brown’s goal, giving him
his 800th NHL point in his 900th career game.Patrik Laine scored on the power
play with 49 seconds left to trim the deficit for Winnipeg, which had won three
in a row. Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien had the other Jets goals, and Laine
added an assist.Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the Jets, who completed a
6-3-1 homestand – their longest of the season. Winnipeg has given up four
power-play goals in the past two games.”Penalty kill is kind of leaking oil
right now,” Wheeler said.”Just kind of wrong penalties at the wrong time. They
capitalized, stole some momentum. Still 2-2 going into the third at home, I
don’t think we hate that spot. Just weren’t able to get one early enough to go
in the third.”It was the third consecutive win for the Kings, who were coming
off a 3-1 victory at Chicago the night before and went 4-3 on their trip.Los
Angeles is tied with Anaheim for third place in the Pacific Division with 71
points
Tomas Tatar Jersey Womens , three behind second-place San Jose.”We knew we had a chance to get into the playoff picture here tonight so we were pretty
determined to do that and we just did a great job,” said Kuemper, who won his
fifth straight start.The Jets went on an early two-man advantage and made it
count when Wheeler fired a high shot over Kuemper’s glove at 5:46 of the first
period.Wheeler also had an assist in running his point streak to six games, with
three goals and eight assists during that span. He has 14 points in his last 10
games.The Kings started off the second period on a high note with their own
power-play goal. Martinez’s point shot went through traffic for his sixth of the
season at 1:49.Phaneuf then added his sixth goal of the season – and third since
being traded to the Kings from Ottawa last week – at 17:05 with Jets forward Nic
Petan in the penalty box for slashing.”They had some really good screeners in
front of me,” said Hellebuyck, who was making his ninth straight start. ”I found
myself up high a lot.”Give them credit, they’re a good team. They’ve won a
couple of Stanley Cups for that reason: They know how to screen a goaltender. It
makes a world of difference.”Byfuglien’s fourth goal of the season tied it 2-all
with 65 seconds left in the second.Los Angeles took a 3-2 lead when Mitchell
scored his second goal in two games by picking up a bouncing puck in front of
Winnipeg’s crease and finding some open net at 6:17.Byfuglien took a
high-sticking penalty with 6:14 left in the third, and Brown scored eight
seconds after it expired. Kopitar’s assist gave him 19 points in his last 16
games (seven goals, 12 assists).NOTES: Both teams went 2 for 5 on the power
play. … Laine has scored an NHL-leading 16 of his 27 goals on the power play.UP
NEXTKings: Host the Dallas Stars on Thursday.Jets: Begin a two-game road trip
Friday in St. Louis.—
