The Columbus Blue Jackets will keep up with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Wildcard race if they organize the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday evening.
The Blue Jackets (34-30-9, 77 points) follow the Canadiens and Rangers with two points for the last wildcard spot with a game in hand on Montreal and two games on New York.
Columbus achieved his third win in four excursions on Tuesday with an 8: 4 victory over the Nashville Predators.
Kirill Marchenko had a hat trick and a template, Sean Monahan added two goals and two templates, and Adam Fantilli scored two goals and a template for the Blue Jackets that improved to home ice to 22-9-5 this season.
Marcho this season runs with 31 goals in 70 games on the Blue Jackets, including goals in four games in a row.
“The reason why he was successful is that he was hard because he was difficult because he was persistent on Pucks,” said Dean Evason, coach of Blue Jackets. “He gets more options because he will get it back. He is not just one and does it. He not only fans in and is looking for a one-timer that was fantastic tonight.”
Kent Johnson added three templates and Elvis Merzlikins achieved 24 parades.
Columbus captain Boone Jenner added two templates to extend his point strips to five games (five goals, three templates).
Merzlikins is 25-19-5 with a percentage of 0.894 and an average of 3.11 goals in 49 games this season. Goalkeeper Daniil Tarasov has 18 starts this season and is 7-9-2 with a percentage of 0.882 and a 3.49 GAA.
Thursday is the second and last meeting between the Blue Jackets and Avalanche this season. Columbus exceeded Colorado on October 12th in Denver Colorado 6-4.
The Avalanche travels to Ohio, after he extinguished a 2-0 deficit in Chicago to score the Blackhawks 3-2 on Wednesday evening.
Colorado (46-26-4, 96 points), the third in the central department, remains seven points in fourth place in Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues and six points back in second place.
On Wednesday, Artturi Lehkonen scored the winner and defender Cale Makar and Martin Necas scored goals of the third period for the avalanche, the points in two consecutive games and 15 of his last 17 (13-2-2) points.
“I thought we (on Wednesday) generated a lot of really good chances,” said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. “Sometimes it has not managed to dig in the third period and finally take some chances and achieve the two points.”
Makar added support for the goal of Necas and scored six points in his last five games (three goals, three templates).
With the Tally, Makar set up a franchise record in Colorado for goals in one season of a defender (29). His 87 points this season are only Nathan Mackinnon, who leads the club with 111 (30 goals, 81 assists).
Scott Wedgewood scored 22 parades on Wednesday evening.
The avalanche remembered the American Hockey League on Wednesday from the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League from the Colorado Eagles. Mandolese who supported Wedgewood in Chicago has not performed in an NHL game since the 2022-23 season.
Mandolese was 10-6-0 with a percentage of 0.905 and a 2.86 GAA in 17 games this season with the Eagles.
-Media on the Level field
