There’s a fine line between excuses and explanations.

No NHL team wants to use its schedule as an excuse, but there are certain games — especially in a season constricted by the league’s participation in the Olympics — when you can almost see a rough night coming.

Sure enough, the fresh-legged Winnipeg Jets had enough juice to pull away every time the Columbus Blue Jackets threatened to make it interesting, scoring two quick-fire third-period goals to take a 5-2 win before 13,847 fans in Canadian Life Centre.

“It just seemed like every time we had a little push, you know, it sagged again on us a little bit,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason told reporters in Winnipeg. “We were in the hockey game early, for the most part, but it got away from us at the end of it.”

Miles Wood and Zach Werenski scored the only goals for the Blue Jackets, who had their five-game point streak (3-0-2) snapped. Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, back in the net after five straight starts for Jet Greaves, stopped 25 of 30 shots.

Werenski’s goal, at 4:04 of the third period, was the 400th point of his career. Only Rick Nash (547) and Cam Atkinson (402) have scored more points for the Blue Jackets franchise, which is celebrating its 25th season in the NHL.

Z gets the goal and becomes the first CBJ defenseman to 400 points! 💥

CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/XIgeIfa0Me

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 19, 2025

Kirill Marchenko, who struggled playing the puck all night, had his career-long point streak halted at 12 games, one short of a franchise record. His only shot on goal came midway through the third period, when the Jets already led 5-2.

Let’s deconstruct the last 24 hours for the Blue Jackets:

Monday, they played beyond regulation and beyond overtime before beating the Montreal Canadiens in a shootout at Nationwide Arena. That’s their third beyond-regulation game in their last four outings, too.

After the game, they packed their bags, took a 2 1/2-hour flight to Winnipeg, cleared customs in the wee hours of Tuesday, and arrived at the team hotel around 2 a.m. CT, or 3 a.m. by their body clocks.

The challenge before the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, then, was Winnipeg, one of the NHL’s biggest, strongest and most physical teams, not to mention wildly talented. Plus, the Jets had two days off since playing in Calgary on Saturday.

The Blue Jackets have been much better on the road (they’re now 5-5-1) and much better in the second game of back-to-backs (now 3-2-0) this season, but this was a big ask.

“You’d get that little burst of energy, and then something would happen, and it kind of, you know, sagged a little bit,” Evason said. “Our desire and our work ethic was real good. That’s a hard team to play against, a veteran team.”

The Blue Jackets got a late first-period goal from Wood to send them into the first intermission with a tie at 1. Wood fought off a hook by Winnipeg’s Dylan Demelo to skate past him and grab a loose puck for a clean look at Jets goaltender Eric Comrie.

Wood, who had a penalty shot late last week, likely would have had another if he hadn’t scored on the play.

But the Jets took over in the second period, scoring only 1:12 in to take the lead. A power-play goal later in the period made it 3-1.

The last glimmer for the Blue Jackets came in the early part of the third.

The Jets went ahead 4-1 on Kyle Connor’s goal only 2:45 into the third. But even when the Blue Jackets seemed to come alive after Werenski scored just 1:19 later, the “burst” that Evason discussed quickly faded.

STANZILLA UNLEASHED 🧨 pic.twitter.com/56kjxY34xD

— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) November 19, 2025

Logan Stanley beat Merzlikins from 40 feet away with a slap shot to the far corner of the net, putting Winnipeg up 5-2.

It spoiled a homecoming for the Blue Jackets’ second-year defenseman, Denton Mateychuk, who grew up in tiny Dominion City, Manitoba — population 319 — which is a little more than an hour south of Winnipeg.

He had half of Dominion City there to watch him, too. No, really. Mateychuk estimated his guest list around 150, maybe more. Most of them seemed to be decked out in Blue Jackets swag, especially No. 5 Mateychuk sweaters.

Mateychuk wouldn’t use the back-to-back as an excuse or explanation.

“It’s tough, but at the end of the day, there are really no excuses,” he said. “Our energy, I thought, was good. We had a little jump in our skates.

“But it was a little scrambly. We had some pucks that should have gone in (to the offensive zone), and they didn’t, and they capitalized on that.”

Fatigue reveals itself in many ways.

There were times when the Blue Jackets just didn’t seem to have their legs, when they reached for pucks, especially defending, rather than skating into them. Marchenko, for one, had his first off night of the season.

But there were also scoring chances when the Jackets weren’t quite sharp enough to finish.

Marchenko was robbed in the third period after making a move to get to Comrie, and Johnson was denied by Comrie on a great save early in the third.

The Blue Jackets planned to fly from Winnipeg to Toronto after the game. Long day. But the good news is they’re off Wednesday before playing the Maple Leafs in Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.