LAS VEGAS — In a city known for its glitz and glamour, the Columbus Blue Jackets wanted nothing more than to dim the lights, quiet the crowd and turn a game between two of the NHL’s highest-scoring clubs into a chess match Thursday.
Cole Sillinger, back in the lineup after missing three games with a bruised hand, called checkmate only 52 seconds into overtime, scoring the first OT winner of his career in the Blue Jackets’ 2-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights before 17,783 in T-Mobile Arena.
The Blue Jackets, who couldn’t buy a road win in the first three months of the season, have gone 4-2-1 in their last seven games away from Nationwide Arena. They’ve done so by embracing a less risky, more defensively sound approach.
Adam Fantilli also scored for the Blue Jackets, while goaltender Elvis Merzlikins — playing in his favorite NHL rink — had 25 saves to improve to 10-2-1 since Dec. 19.
It all works together, right? There’s no question that Merzlikins has played well over the last six weeks, maybe the best he’s played since his rookie season (2019-20), but he’s also been served well by how responsible the skaters are playing in front of him.
Thursday was a great example of that.
“Our thought process, one of our keys, was to try and be a frustrating group tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “That meant not opening things up, not giving them any life. It meant making it a boring game.
“If we can stick around in games like this, against teams like this, in buildings like this, it says some good things.”
The sequence that led to Sillinger’s OT goal was anything but boring, however.
It started on the other end of the ice when Kent Johnson poked the puck off the stick of Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo at the Columbus blue line and gathered it behind him, taking off for a breakaway.
Johnson tried to score between Vegas goaltender Ilya Samsonov’s pad, but Samsonov denied him. Zach Werenski and Sillinger arrived to the scene as trailers, and Werenski’s swat at the puck sent it off the goalie and then back into the slot.
Sillinger buried the loose puck into the open cage.
THE GAME WINNER 💥@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/dBGRgdjZrC
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 31, 2025
“My eyes were bigger when I saw KJ on a breakaway, to be honest,” Sillinger said. “I just followed it up. Z whacked it a little bit and that puck was sitting there. It’s nice to seal a game.
“We want to be able to win games like that. These are the kind of games, coming down the stretch, that we’re going to have to win.”
As jumbled as the Eastern Conference is, the Blue Jackets were lucky that during their four-day break — they last played Saturday, a 3-2 home win over Los Angeles — none of the other clubs in the murky middle of the conference made a move.
With Thursday’s win, the Blue Jackets are back in the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, leapfrogging Boston for the final spot. Columbus plays its first game in Salt Lake City on Friday, facing the Utah Hockey Club in Delta Center.
“I’m impressed that the players don’t want to open it up,” Evason said. “They’re saying the same things (the coaches are saying.) It’s not like we’re saying ‘You can’t try to carry the puck in,’ or ‘You can’t try to make plays.’
“It’s fun because they’re coaching themselves and each other in situations. Do we want to score as many goals as we can? Sure. But we want to win games.”
When Blue Jackets center Sean Monahan suffered a sprained wrist on Jan. 7 in Pittsburgh, there was great concern that one of the strengths of the lineup would become a challenge. Monahan, who had surgery last week and is expected to miss up to two months, played in all situations, most notably on the No. 1 line.
In his absence, the 20-year-old Fantilli moved up to the No. 1 line and the 21-year-old Sillinger slotted into the second line. Sillinger’s recent absences further stressed the position, but the Blue Jackets have continued to win games and play with some of the NHL’s top teams.
MO GETS EVEN! @FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/KHd2GRWmFH
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 31, 2025
Fantilli’s goal with 1:26 remaining in the first period was huge.
The Blue Jackets hadn’t played a great first period, and they trailed for most of the first period, ever since Vegas’ Tomas Hertl caught Merzlikins leaning away from his post and scored from the left circle.
But when Fantilli and Voronkov jabbed away at a loose puck under Samsonov, the puck squirted free and into the net. That’s the type of greasy goal that can swing tight games like this.
Fantilli has 7-5-12 and a plus-9 rating in the 10-plus games since Monahan went down. He played 18:12 on Thursday, led the Blue Jackets with five shots on goal and seven shot attempts, and won 9 of 17 faceoffs despite spending most of the night against Vegas’ superstar, Jack Eichel.
“Having Silly back in there was nice,” Evason said. “It was nice to roll. I think we flipped off our rotation (rolling the four lines) only once in the game. Everybody was involved, and everybody felt a part of it.”
(Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie / Imagn Images)
