Columbus Blue Jackets @ Anaheim Ducks: Season 25 12/20/25

First, a warm welcome to Mason Marchment! He joins the Columbus Blue Jackets after General Manager Don Waddell sent two draft picks to the Seattle Kraken this afternoon for the Forward. He's certainly the type of guy you would rather have in your locker room than your opposition, that's for sure. I love that he's already slotted in to play tonight, and I can't wait to see his impact on our team. Spoiler alert: We don't have to wait long to see it!  

The Anaheim Ducks would come out on home ice looking for revenge. Not only did we beat them in our first of two meetings this season in Nationwide Arena, Monday, with an overtime 4-3 win, but the Ducks were beaten bad last night. The Dallas Stars gave them hell last night, on home ice, with an 8-3 final. At 2:14, Mikael Granlund would get his home team on the board first with his sixth goal this season. Olen Zellweger hits double-digits with his tenth assist on the primary, while Frank Vatrano gets his third assist this season on the secondary. Seconds later, at 3:00, Jacob Trouba would find a blind spot for Elvis as the goaltender was being screened, and would score his sixth goal of the season. Ryan Poehling gets his eleventh assist this season on the primary, while the secondary becomes the ninth this season for teammate Alex Killorn. It wasn't a pretty sight to be down 2-0 with just three minutes played, but not long after the Ducks jumped to an early lead, they'd make a mistake, and Backett Senneckee would go to the box after holding Charlie Coyles' stick. The power play would spark some life into the Blue Jackets, waking them up for a goal! Dimitri Voronkov would come through with that first goal for the Blue Jackets at 5:54. It's his thirteenth goal this season, matching Zach Werenski for the most on the team so far this season! Charlie Coyle would add his seventeenth assist this season on the primary, while the secondary would go to Zach Werenski, giving him twenty-six. This would be all the scoring in Period 1, giving us a 2-1 Ducks lead ahead of Period 2. The Ducks won the shots on goal battle in the opening period, but only by one, 10-9. 

Remember how I said we wouldn't have to wait long for Mason Marchment's impact to be felt with his new team? 3:39 into his second period as a Blue Jacket, he'd score his first goal, his fifth of the season, tying the game at 2-2! Damon Severson adds his eighth assist on the primary, while number nine, Ivan Provorov, adds his ninth assist on the secondary. With the game tied, at 5:51, Beckett Sennecke would go straight down the ice and collide with our goaltender, Elvis Merzlikins. Thankfully, Elvis would pop back up and continue playing. Nothing would come out of the two-minute power play as Beckett Sennecke sat in the penalty box for goaltender interference, but Elvis being okay after the collision is a win in itself. Speaking of Elvis, this was easily one of his best periods of hockey this season. M McTavish would get the puck past him at 13:36 for his eighth goal this season, and R Johnston would add his eighth assist on that goal. But the number of quality shots the Ducks had that Elvis denied were truly some of his best clutch saves this season to date. No other goals would come in this period, and the Blue Jackets would go into Period 3 searching for another tying goal, but with more life than they had at the end of Period 1 for sure! The Ducks would again lead shots on goal by one, but this time 11-10. 

Zach Werenski would find that tying goal, 3-3, at 12:44 after express shipping his team's leading fourteenth goal into the back of the Ducks' net! Denton Mateychuk gets his seventh assist of the season on the primary, while Kent Johnson adds his eighth assist this season on the secondary. Also, if you can see this Zach Werenski goal, do so, because the margin of error he had to get the puck into the Ducks' net is so squeakily tight that it just makes the goal even better! But, of course, the Ducks would come for the lead again, and after keeping the Blue Jackets in their zone far too long, they'd find their fourth goal tonight from Pavel Mintyukov. At 16:31, this would become his fourth goal this season. Mikael Granlund adds assist number eight to his season with the primary, while Radko Gudas gets his seventh assist this season on the secondary. Now, I rarely fault officiating, but Dean Evason was livid after Zach Werenski went down after taking a puck. This man was on the ice, crawling to the bench, Elvis pushing him, and they have the audacity to give us a bench minor and not blow the whistle to stop play when a player is clearly injured. Rediculous. I'm sure we'll hear about that in post-game from Dean after Zach Werenski left the game, did not return, and couldn't walk on his foot where the puck hit him. He's taken pucks to that foot in the last couple of games, and I really hope this isn't as bad as it looked. I wish him the best, and I'm disappointed at how his injury was handled on the ice. The final shots on goal this period were tied, 7-7. 

The Third Star of the Game was 1-0-1 Mason McTavish. The Second Star of the Game was 1-0-1 Pavel Mintyukov. The First Star of the Game was 1-1-2 Mikael Granlund. 

The Blue Jackets will have tomorrow off before they face the Kings in L.A. on Monday. The good thing is that they'll have minimal travel as they're already in California. The game will again be at 10:00 p.m. This will be the last game before the holiday break. Also, hate me all you want, but I'd trade those two points for Zach Werenski to play. Let that sink in so you really understand how disgraceful the last few minutes of this game were. 

Go CBJ,