Yes, it was against the struggling Vancouver Canucks, but the Blue Jackets finally upheld a lead in a third period with confidence to win their third straight game.

Paced by an impressive line featuring captain Boone Jenner, center Sean Monahan and right wing Kent Johnson, the Jackets took care of business with a tidy 4-1 victory in a game they won, handily, in front of 14,918 on Jan. 15 at Nationwide Arena.

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“I didn’t like the first period at all,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “I didn’t like our puck management. Five-on-five, we gave up eight (scoring) chances in the first, and then we gave up six the rest of the game, because we started playing the right way.”

Charlie Coyle, Zach Werenski, Kirill Marchenko and Kent Johnson scored goals for the Blue Jackets (21-19-7), who got 30 saves from goalie Elvis Merzlikins in his first win since Dec. 4.

Coyle capped a power play for a 1-0 lead late in the first period for his 10th goal of the season, Marchenko and Werenski made it 3-0 with goals in the second, and Johnson scored the Jackets’ fourth goal with 9:47 left in the third for the final score.

Brock Boeser scored the lone goal for the Canucks (16-26-5), cutting it to 3-1 on a power play late in the second, but it wasn’t to prevent Vancouver from dropping its ninth straight game and falling to 1-9-2 in the Canucks’ past 12 games. Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen stopped 32 of 36 shots to keep it respectable.

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Along with their disjointed first period, the Blue Jackets’ penalty killing remains shaky despite Bowness replacing Dean Evason on Jan. 12 in a surprising desperation coaching switch. They went 1-for-2 killing penalties against the Canucks after going 0-for-3 in a 5-3 victory Jan. 13 over the Calgary Flames.

Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets make a lead stand up for 3rd straight win