COLUMBUS — Seth Jones had a goal and an assist for Columbus to help the Blue Jackets beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 on Wednesday night.
Serge Bobrovsky stopped 34 of 35 shots to lead Columbus (6-3-0) to its fifth win in its last seven games.
Buffalo dropped to 3-6-2 in front of goalie Chad Johnson, who stopped 33 of 38 shots.
The Jackets power play had been an anemic 2-for-20, but got a goal at 12:00 of the first period after Zach Redmond’s hooking call. Oliver Bjorkstrand whipped his second goal of the season past Johnson off an around-the-horn pass from Jones to Sonny Milano, and a picture perfect screen by Boone Jenner.
The game became a defensive battle between goalies until the second period when quick puck movement on a rush by Brandon Dubinsky and Cam Atkinson set up a trailing Jones, who scored his second goal of the season at 15:20. The Jackets struck again at 17:38 when Jack Jackson’s shot bounced off Johnson, right toward a driving Nick Foligno, who dribbled it into the net. It was the third goal of the season for Foligno, who was moved up this game to center the first line, and it paid off.
The Jackets scored again 41 seconds later when Matt Calvert buried a rebound on a big shot from the point by Markus Nutivaara, for his second goal of the season. Ryan Murray also earned an assist.
Buffalo finally got on the board at 17:26 of the third period when Seth Griffith beat Bobrovsky from the point for his first goal of the season, assisted by Jordan Nolan and Johan Larsson.
But the Jackets still were not done, as Josh Anderson scored his second goal of the season with just 40 seconds left in the game, assisted by Artemi Panarin, his team-leading ninth of the season, and Alexander Wennberg.
Notes: Columbus has now scored at least four goals in its last five games. The Jackets were without Lukas Sedlak who suffered an ankle injury during practice Monday. Buffalo was finishing its third back-to-back series of the young season with 16 more to go. Wennberg’s assist was the 100th of his NHL career.
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