NHL Game Summary - Ottawa at Columbus
Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Clarke MacArthur scored two goals and assisted on another as the Ottawa Senators downed the injury-bitten Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-2, at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.
Erik Karlsson netted the eventual game-winner early in the third period for Ottawa, which scored three unanswered goals to snap a two-game skid.
"It's definitely nice to win this one when we played the way we did. We stuck to it, executed when we had to and stepped up when we needed to step up," said Karlsson.
Zack Smith and Alex Chiasson also lit that lamp to complement a solid 36-save effort from Robin Lehner.
Columbus went just 1-for-6 on the power play en route to a third straight loss. David Savard and Cam Atkinson each netted goals, while Curtis McElhinney made 29 saves in place of an injured Sergei Bobrovsky.
Earlier Tuesday, the Blue Jackets placed Bobrovsky on injured reserve after he fractured a finger in practice. The club, which was already without Brandon Dubinsky, Nathan Horton and Boone Jenner, saw two more forwards -- Matt Calvert and Nick Foligno -- go down over the weekend.
To make matters worse, second-line center Artem Anisimov exited Tuesday's game after catching an elbow up high from Ottawa's Eric Gryba in the second period.
Columbus did, however, receive a bit of good news on the injury front, as Atkinson was back on the ice after missing just one game following a scary incident on Friday.
Atkinson was inadvertently kicked in the face by Ducks forward Ryan Kesler and needed several stitches to close up a gash above his right eye.
He saw perfectly fine in his return, as he scored off a faceoff to even things at 2-2 heading into the third period, which was completely owned by Ottawa.
Karlsson finished off a give-and-go with Kyle Turris 3:41 into the frame, and Chiasson one-timed a MacArthur pass into the back of net while on the power play midway through.
MacArthur beat McElhinney over his left shoulder at the 11:08 mark to put the game away.
"We just ran out of gas," Blue Jackets forward Adam Cracknell said. "We lost some guys and made some mistakes."
The teams traded power-play goals just 1:03 apart in the opening period.
Seconds after they had a goal waived off because of an early whistle, the Blue Jackets opened the scoring at the 5:19 mark as Savard ripped a slap shot from the right circle past Lehner.
Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray was whistled for roughing during the next shift, and MacArthur deftly redirected Karlsson's shot through traffic.
Ottawa jumped ahead 1:44 into the second period when Cody Ceci intercepted an attempted clear and sent a shot on net that Smith deflected in.