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Blue Jackets Extend Road Point Streak to 9 by Beating Ducks
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Zach Werenski scored two goals and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.
The win pushed Columbus’ road point streak to nine games (6-0-3). Eric Robinson and Nathan Gerbe also scored, Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 37 shots.
Werenski leads the team with 15 goals and has a point in three straight games (four goals, one assist).
Nathan Gerbe and Werenski scored 72 seconds apart during the second period to put Columbus ahead.
Gerbe tied it at 2 with 1:23 remaining in the second. The centre picked up his third goal in eight games when he tapped in the puck after a rush to the net. Anaheim challenged that Gerbe was offside but the goal was upheld in the NHL replay room.
Columbus went on the power play after the failed challenge and converted when Werenski took Dubois’ pass and fired a one-timer from point-blank range past goalie Ryan Miller with 10 seconds left in the period.
Werenski added an empty-net goal with 1:33 to play before Ondrej Kase made it 4-3 with 43 seconds remaining — his second goal of the game. Kase snapped a 17-game goal drought.
Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, and Miller made 23 saves.
Getzlaf opened the scoring at 3:06 of the first period with his 11th goal of the season when he redirected Michael Del Zotto’s shot from the blue line through Merzlikins’ legs.
Robinson tied it eight minutes later when he took Riley Nash’s pass, skated into the left circle and fired a wrist shot past Miller’s stick. It was the left wing’s fifth goal of the season and first in 11 games.
Kase put the Ducks back on top 24 seconds into the second when he stole the puck from Dubois deep in the Columbus zone and snapped a shot over Merzlikins’ blocker.
NOTES: Anaheim RW Jakob Silfverberg sustained an upper-body injury during the first period and did not return. … Columbus is 5-2-2 in its last nine games against Anaheim. … Kase’s goal in the second was the 10th by the Ducks in the opening minute of a period this season and the third-quickest.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Play at San Jose on Thursday.
Ducks: Wrap up their homestand against Dallas on Thursday.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
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