Evason, Greaves on Blue Jackets’ win over Lightning
Columbus Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason, goalie Jet Greaves talk about a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 18 at Nationwide Arena.
The way things were going for the Blue Jackets, nobody could be blamed for thinking, “Here we go again,” late in the first period Oct. 18 at Nationwide Arena.
After jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Kent Johnson, the Jackets coughed it up later in the first period on goals 3:40 apart. The second one, scored by Anthony Cirelli, was the eighth goal the Blue Jackets have allowed while killing penalties in just their fifth game.
Here we go again, right?
Nope.
Keeping it 2-1 into the second, they faced another form of adversity that’s bitten them in their first four games. Dmitri Voronkov had an apparent goal overturned for the second straight game that would have tied it 2-2, this time for a missed offsides call instead of him illegally directing the puck into the net with his chest.
Here we go again, right?
Wrong.
A short while later, Damon Severson tied it 2-2, and early in the third period the Blue Jackets went up 3-2 on Kirill Marchenko’s winner. They won by that same score on his fifth goal in five games, putting an end to the a two-game skid while reinforcing what the Jackets had preached.
Don’t panic. Work harder. Win.
“Of course it’s important,” Marchenko said of winning. “We had a good practice (Oct. 17) and our team played really hard. We had a lot of (scoring) opportunities and it’s a good (outcome) for us. We just need to grow up and take this confidence (into) the future.”
Here are five more takeaways:
Marchenko’s goal made him the first player in franchise history to have five goals in a season’s first five games. That’s an impressive feat for a team that has deployed Rick Nash, Johnny Gaudreau, Cam Atkinson, Artemi Panarin and other gifted scorers in its 25 years of existence.
The goal also moved Marchenko into 10th place on the franchise’s all-time rankings of goal scorers with 80 goals in his first 221 NHL games.
“He was on the ice to defend (late), and we need him to use his skill set in all different areas defensively,” Evason said. “We want him to score goals, which he does, but we need him to continue to have that competitiveness, that two-way game (so) he can be on the ice in all situations, and he’s done that and he’s getting rewarded with goals, as well.”
Voronkov’s apparent tying goal in the second period was the Blue Jackets’ fourth overturned goal in their first five games, and one they challenged for goaltender interference Oct. 11 in Minnesota was unsuccessful.
So, it’s fair to say they’re looking for a little more luck when it comes to disputed goals. All four would-be Blue Jackets goals were overturned with correct decisions, including Voronkov’s against the Lightning.
The culprit this time was a puck that left the offensive zone before defenseman Denton Mateychuk could corral it at the left point, which Tampa Bay’s video coaches caught. It would have been nice for lines official Travis Gawryletz to see it, too. Replays showed Gawryletz positioned close to the play, where he should have been, looking directly at it without blowing it dead.
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson scores another beauty
Johnson celebrated his 23rd birthday by adding another jaw-dropper to his career highlight mixtape, putting the Blue Jackets up 1-0 4:58 into the game.
After scoring a lacrosse-style “Michigan” goal in 2022 against the New York Islanders and scoring last season with a no-look Spin-O-Rama shot in Buffalo, Johnson’s latest work of art was done with incredible hand-eye coordination.
Going to the net, he scooped a puck that skittered through a defender’s legs in front of the net and quickly lifted it over goalie Jonan Johansson’s pad with a backhand. It was a beautiful goal, but more importantly it gave the Jackets an early lead on Johnson’s first goal and point of the season.
Columbus Blue Jackets enforcer Mathieu Olivier logs first 2025-26 scrap
Mathieu Olivier, who is one of the NHL’s toughest fighters, dropped his gloves for the first time this season at 3:10 of the first period. He squared off with Lightning forward Curtis Douglas, who stands 6 feet 9 and used his long reach to hold Olivier off for most of the bout.
Olivier took a couple of right hands to the left side of his helmet/face but landed a couple himself and toppled the taller opponent with an impressive takedown.
Score it a draw as a fight, but a win for the Blue Jackets in setting a tone on a night that ended in a melee after Lightning forward Brandon Hagel firing the puck at the Columbus net a second after the horn sounded to end the game.
Jet Greaves gives Columbus Blue Jackets another strong night
Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves has allowed two goals in all three of his starts thus far. He picked up his first win thanks to Marchenko’s winning goal, and the Jackets made sure to help him get it with a determined defensive effort all game.
Greaves stopped 22 of 24 shots for a .917 save percentage in the game, and his season numbers are even better. After three games, he’s sporting a 2.05 goals-against average and .928 save percentage with 77 saves on 83 shots. Among goalies who’ve played more than one game, Greaves ranks 13th in GAA and ninth in save percentage.
The Blue Jackets will happily take those numbers from a young goalie who ended last season hot and has continued to play well in first full NHL season.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social