COLUMBUS — Sean Kuraly had two goals and an assist in the third period for the Columbus Blue Jackets in a 6-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
Boone Jenner had a goal and an assist, Erik Gudbranson had two assists, and Joonas Korpisalo made 38 saves for the Blue Jackets (6-9-1), who are 3-0-1 in their past four games.
“We just kept playing, and if you try to do things the right way, it’ll go your way. And that’s what happened tonight,” Kuraly said. “It doesn’t happen every night.”
Video: MTL@CBJ: Jenner finishes tic-tac-toe goal in the 3rd
Brendan Gallagher and Nick Suzuki each had a goal and an assist, Christian Dvorak had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 23 saves for the Canadiens (8-8-1), who have lost two straight (outscored 11-5).
“We learned a tough lesson tonight,” Gallagher said. “The first period might have been our worst period of the year. You get behind the eight ball, it doesn’t matter what you do after that, it’s tough to come back. You can’t expect to do it.”
Cole Sillinger gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 7:28 of the first period when his shot from the left wall was accidentally guided by Montembeault into the net off the defenseman Jordan Harris.
Gustav Nyquist made it 2-0 at 16:19, skating to the bottom of the right face-off circle and scoring five-hole off a diagonal cross-ice pass Gavin Bayreuther. It was his first goal since Oct. 15 (13 games).
“This wasn’t pretty tonight at all, but you have to win ugly at times in this league,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “And I thought [Korpisalo] was outstanding.
“He didn’t have a ton of work in the first, (but) he made some good saves. But the second and third, he was busy, way too busy for my liking. It felt like we had one of those grenades with a pin pulled.”
Video: MTL@CBJ: Bayreuther sets up Nyquist for a goal in the 1st
The Blue Jackets had three unsuccessful breakaways in the first period: Liam Foudy shot wide at 12:33, Montembeault made a save on Yegor Chinakhov at 14:12, and Jenner hit the post at 18:09.
“To me, it’s the breakaways more than the goals that were scored on us,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “Some of the breakaways were self-inflicted. We were careless. We were down two, I thought we could have been down five.”
Video: MTL@CBJ: Sillinger gives Blue Jackets 1-0 lead in 1st
Harris cut it to 2-1 at 13:35 of the second period with a shot inside the right post from the left circle.
Josh Anderson tied it 2-2 with three seconds left in the period with a power-play goal.
Jenner put the Blue Jackets back in front 3-2 at 6:36 of the third period. Johnny Gaudreau skated in on a 2-on-1 and fed Kent Johnsonwho passed back to Jenner, who was trailing on the play and scored from the slot.
Gallagher tied it 3-3 at 9:27, shooting into an open net after Dvorak got Korpisalo to overcommit.
Kuraly scored his first of the period to make it 4-3 at 10:09. He chipped the puck between Evgenii Dadonov and Harris while entering the zone before shooting blocker side on Montembeault, who had attempted a poke check.
Mathieu Olivier extended the lead to 5-3 at 11:09 after Kuraly won a face-off back to him at the top of the right circle. It was Olivier’s first goal for the Blue Jackets since being acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on June 30.
“It just was just way overdue,” Olivier said.
Video: MTL@CBJ: Olivier fires a quick shot for goal in the 3rd
Suzuki scored eight seconds later to cut it to 5-4 when he banked a shot from behind the net off Korpisalo, but Kuraly shot into an empty net at 17:47 for the 6-4 final.
“We gave up goals at not so good times, after our goals or back-to-back,” Suzuki said.
NOTES: Columbus is 7-0-1 in its past eight games against Montreal. … Blue Jackets center Jack Roslovic had two shots, two hits and four blocks in 12:22 of ice time after he was a healthy scratch in a 5-4 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. … Bayreuther played his second game this season after defenseman Jake Bean (shoulder) was placed on injured reserve earlier Thursday. … Jenner has six goals in his past five games.
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