Blue Jackets Race Past Kraken Behind Young Guns – The Hockey Writers Columbus Blue Jackets Latest News, Analysis & More

The Columbus Blue Jackets were going to need contributions from all over the ice to replace the injured Sean Monahan and ill Cole Sillinger. Thanks to the performance of their young guns, they found another win at home.

Luca Del Bel Belluz recorded a goal and an assist. Denton Mateychuk added his first NHL goal and an assist to help power the Blue Jackets to a convincing 6-2 win over the Seattle Kraken.

It was a total team effort that helped the Blue Jackets to two points on Thursday night.

Game Recap

The first period saw the Kraken record the first 10 shot attempts of the game. Mikael Pyyhtia shot one at Philipp Grubauer 7:25 into the game for the Blue Jackets’ first shot on goal. That did spark the Blue Jackets the rest of the way although the teams traded goals midway through the first.

Sean Kuraly opened the scoring about 12 minutes in on a deflection of an Ivan Provorov shot. It only took Eeli Tolvanen 10 seconds to tie the game on a shot down the left wing that beat Elvis Merzlikins.

The final 40 minutes belonged to the Blue Jackets. Del Bel Belluz made it 2-1 converting in front off of a James van Riemsdyk pass. That marked Del Bel Belluz’s second NHL goal in his second NHL game. His parents were seen crying in the crowd tears of joy.

Zach Werenski extended the lead to 3-1 off a great pass from Adam Fantilli. The goal was Werenski’s 13th of the season tying him with Cal Makar for most goals by a defenseman this season. Werenski trails Makar by just one point in the defensemen scoring race as of the end of the Blue Jackets’ win.

Then Mateychuk scored his first NHL goal to extend it to 4-1. van Riemsdyk did the work to gain possession. His pass got to Mateychuk who had a wide open side of the net. The Kraken took timeout after that.

It didn’t matter. Kent Johnson made it 5-1 which forced Grubauer out of the game. He 14 saves on 19 shots before Joey Daccord came in.

Tolvanen scored his second of the night to cut it to 5-2. That’s as close as the Kraken would get as Kirill Marchenko hit the bullseye to get to the final score of 6-2.

On top of Del Bel Belluz and Mateychuk, Werenski and van Riemsdyk recorded two points each. 13 skaters recorded at least a point. Merzlikins stopped 29/31 for the win. Daccord only had to make four saves on the night as the Blue Jackets had just three shots in the third.

The Blue Jackets return to action Saturday night with a rematch against the St. Louis Blues this time at Enterprise Center. The Kraken head to Buffalo for a 4 P.M. eastern start to take on the Sabres on Saturday.