Elvis Merzlikins made 33 of his season-high 38 saves in the final two periods and the Columbus Blue Jackets halted an eight-game road losing streak by holding on for a 2-1 victory over the slumping New Jersey Devils Friday afternoon in Newark, N.J.
Merzlikins made six saves during a New Jersey power play early in the third and then stopped three more shots in the final two-plus minutes. He made eight saves on Jack Hughes and six on Jesper Bratt.
Eric Robinson, a New Jersey native who played at Princeton, scored the tiebreaking goal in the final minute of the opening period as the Blue Jackets got their first road win since beating Minnesota on Oct. 22.
Boone Jenner scored for the third straight game as the Blue Jackets followed up a 7-3 win over Chicago by winning consecutive games for the second time this season after losing nine straight. Jenner also won two key defensive zone faceoffs in the final 15 seconds when the Devils pulled goalie Akira Schmid.
Alexander Holtz scored for the Devils, who dropped under .500 in points percentage for the first time this season at 8-9-1. New Jersey also dropped to 2-7-0 in its past nine contests after getting off to a 6-2-1 start.
Schmid stopped 26 shots.
Columbus opened the scoring when New Jersey defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler followed Johnny Gaudreau behind the net. Gaudreau made a pass to Jenner in between the circles and he buried it over Schmid.
The Devils tied it with 6:45 left in the first when Ondrej Palat stole the puck from Jake Bean along the boards in the neutral zone. Palat then found Holtz, who buried a shot over Merzlikins from between the faceoff circles.
After getting one shot on goal during a four-minute power play, the Blue Jackets regained the lead when Robinson beat Hamilton and Luke Hughes and finished off a breakaway with 37 seconds left after getting a pass from Justin Danforth.
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