The Blue Jackets lost their third straight game Nov. 8 at the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3, because they can’t shake their two biggest issues.
They can’t seem to beat a goalie with anybody other than Kirill Marchenko or Dmitri Voronkov, and they’re now crumbling in tight games. This time, despite outshooting the Canucks 32-25, the Jackets let another golden chance to win slip through their fingers when Canucks forward Brock Boeser beat goalie Elvis Merzlikins off a rush with 5:45 left to play.
That broke a 3-3 tie less than five minutes after Marchenko pulled the Blue Jackets (7-7-0) even with his second goal of the game and team leading eighth of the season.
Skating with Fantilli at center instead of Sean Monahan, Marchenko and Voronkov excelled in the offensive zone. Their impressive performance just wasn’t enough to edge the Canucks (8-8-0), who got goals in the third from Conor Garland at 6:17 and Boeser at 14:15.
The Blue Jackets got a late power play, trailing by a goal, but failed to score before Yegor Chinakhov was called for tripping off a faceoff at the end of it. Kevin Lankinen, who started in net for Vancouver, made stops against Voronkov and Marchenko in the final 2:19 among his 29 saves, improving to 9-3-1 in 14 career appearances against Columbus.
Elvis Merzlikins (21 saves) started for the Blue Jackets and dropped to 4-3-0 with his second straight loss decided late in the third period.
Columbus successfully killed a five-minute Canucks power play in the second that started 7:00 into the period after Mathieu Olivier was assessed a boarding major and game misconduct for driving defenseman Elias Pettersson headfirst into end boards in the Vancouver zone.
It happened 14 seconds into a shift that followed Marchenko’s first goal of the game to tie 1-1 at 6:46 of the second and counter Jake DeBrust’s goal for the Canucks at 5:28 that opened the scoring. Voronkov put the Blue Jackets up 2-1 with 6:58 left in the middle period, but Drew O’Connor tied it 2-2 with 57 seconds remaining.
Vancouver went ahead 3-2 at 6:17 of the third on a rebound goal by Garland, but Marchenko’s second of the game tied it 3-3 just 3:30 later.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.socialÂ