Columbus Blue Jackets @ Chicago Blackhawks: Season 25 1/30/26

It's surprising to me that we're already playing our last game in January and have just three more after tonight before the 2026 Winter Olympic Break. One Blue Jacket who has shown bright this month is Charlie Coyle. Before tonight's game, he had a 6-4-10 month and received his golden NHL stick for his 1,000th game in the league. In our last game, at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, he scored the first goal. Tonight, on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks, he'd score the first goal again! This goal would be his thirteenth this season, and it would hit the back of the Blackhawks net at 19:13. Even better, this would be a power play goal as Blackhawks' Connor Murphy sat in the box for holding Kirill Marchenko late in the opening period. Zach Werenski would add his thirty-ninth assist on this first goal of the game with the primary, while the secondary assist would become the twenty-sixth for Kirill Marchenko. The Blue Jackets would hold the lead for a few seconds before Connor Bedard slipped a late goal past Elvis Merzlikins to tie the game at 1-1. 19:57 would mark his twenty-second goal this season and give teammates Alex Vlasic his twelfth assist this season on the primary, and Tyler Bertuzzi his fifteenth assist this season on the secondary. The Blue Jackets would lead shots on goal this first period, 14-8.  

I'm happy to say, the tie didn't last long, and the man of the month would ensure that! Charlie Coyle would put himself on hat-trick watch with his second goal of the night, 1:23 into Period 2! His goal would have no assists. Then, just a few minutes later at 6:47, Mathieu Olivier would join in on the goal-scoring fun with his sixth this season! Charlie Coyle would get his third point of the night, adding his twenty-fourth assist to his two earlier goals on the primary, while Zach Werenski added his second assist tonight, fortieth this season, on the secondary! The lead would be 3-1, but the Blackhawks wouldn't back down on home ice and did close the gap to 3-2 before the middle period ended. Their second goal tonight would come from Frank Nazar at 10:49; it would become his seventh goal of the season.  Connor Bedard would add a primary assist to his goal in Period 1, his thirtieth assist overall this season, while teammate Tyler Bartuai adds his second assist of the night, his sixteenth overall this season. This would conclude the scoring for Period 2, allowing the Blue Jackets to carry a 3-2 lead into the final regulation period. The Blue Jackets would again lead shots on goal this period, but by a slimmer margin than in Period 1, 9-8.   

Period 3 would see the Blackhawks push hard for a tying goal, but even with a power-play chance at 14:42 while Kent Johnson sat in the box for holding Teuvo Teravainen, the Blue Jackets would keep them at two goals. Then, in the final minutes of the period, we'd see the real Charlie Coyle on display as he passed the puck to Cole Sillinger ahead of an empty Blackhawks net, even though he couldn've shot to complete his hat-trick. Now, of course, Cole Sillinger passed the puck back, passing on the offer to take the empty net goal and allowing Charlie Coyle to score his third goal tonight. I mean, when your players do that on the ice for each other, you've got something special, that's for sure. That goal was Charlie Coyle's fifteenth this season. Cole Sillinger would get the primary assist on this goal, giving him eighteen this season, and Mathieu Olivier would add the secondary assist to his goal in Period 2, marking his ninth assist this season. The Blue Jackets would go on to win the game, 4-2, after that empty net goal at 18:57! The Blackhawks would win the final shots on goal battle this period, 9-3. 

Zach Werenski picks up the Third Star of the game after adding assists number thirty-nine and forty to his season. 

Connor Bedard gets the Second Star of the Game with his goal in Period 1 and an assist in Period 2. 

And, the cannon-hot Charlie Coyle adds the First Star of the game to his epic night after a hat-trick and an assist in Period 2! He also joins some pretty cool NHL History tonight with that hat-trick, as 31 have been scored across the league this month, a new record! 

It was also a good night for Elvis Merzlikins in the net as he stopped 22 of the Blackhawks 24 shots on his net. This added up to a .917 save percentage. Not bad for the Olympic-Bound Latvian Goaltender.

Rick Bowness sits at 7-1-0 as the Head Coach of our Columbus Blue Jackets. The team will now fly to St. Louis to take on the Blues tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. The Blue Jackets also sit 4th in the Wildcard race with 59 points and a four-game winning streak, 

GO CBJ!!!!


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