Conor Garland crafted his second straight two-goal game as the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets swept the three-game season series from the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 5-2 victory on Tuesday night.
Acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade last week, Garland broke a 24-game scoreless drought with two markers on Monday in Columbus’ 5-4 overtime home loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Now he has four goals through two games with his new team.
The Blue Jackets also got tallies from Ivan Provorov, Dante Fabbro and Kirill Marchenko. Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan had two assists apiece for Columbus, which opened a three-game road trip by moving to 15-2-3 in the past 20 contests. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins stopped 16 shots.
In dropping to 1-6-0 in their past seven games and playing a third match in four nights, the Lightning got goals from Gage Goncalves and J.J. Moser. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.
The Lightning killed off two minor penalties before Victor Hedman stepped into a blast and Goncalves got a piece of it for a 1-0 lead at 13:38 of the first period.
In the final minute of the opening frame, Vasilevskiy made a big save on Garland’s breakaway try and Kent Johnson’s close shot to maintain the margin.
During a span of 30 seconds in the second, the Blue Jackets netted twice for a 2-1 edge.
Provorov’s shot through traffic deflected in off Hedman to tie it at 5:57. Johnson then found Garland all alone to put the visitors on top.
Quick puck movement by the Blue Jackets on their third power play ended with Marchenko wiring one by a stickless Vasilevskiy from the left circle for a 3-1 advantage at 11:42 of the second.
Moser potted his career-high-tying seventh tally at 16:23 of the middle frame to make it a one-goal game again.
Garland backhanded home his second marker of the night four minutes into the third, and Fabbro hit an empty net with less than five minutes left for the final margin.
–Field Level Media
