Merzlikins Shines in Blue Jackets’ 5-1 Win Over Stars

The Columbus Blue Jackets (3-3-0) beat the Dallas Stars (3-3-0) 5-1 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday night.

Adam Fantilli, Boone Jenner, Denton Mateychuk, and Dimitri Voronkov scored for the Blue Jackets. Elvis Merzlikins made 22 saves. While the save total might not reflect a terrific night, Merzlikins slammed the door shut in key moments throughout the game to give the Blue Jackets the opportunity to pull away in the third period.

Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger made 24 saves.

Game Recap

Fantilli and the Blue Jackets took advantage of a failed clearing attempt by the Stars and opened the scoring at 4:33 of the opening period. Kent Johnson fed the puck to Jenner in the right corner, and Jenner found Fantilli at the right faceoff dot. Fantilli snapped the puck over Oettinger’s left shoulder, just inside the crossbar, for his second goal of the season.

The Blue Jackets struck again with 78 seconds left in the period, this time on the power play. Charlie Coyle found Jenner all by himself with a cross-crease pass. As Jenner swiped at the pass, the puck deflected off his right skate and into the wide-open net.

The Stars were outplayed in the first and were outshot by the Blue Jackets 14-5. In the second, Dallas turned the tables with 13 shots to Columbus’s six.

Seguin finally broke through at 11:58 to bring the Stars to within one with a deflected shot from Colin Blackwell that got past Merzlikins for his second of the season.