Bobrovsky has 35 saves, Blue Jackets rout Maple Leafs, 5-0

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Scott Hartnell had a goal and an assist and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 35 shots for his second shutout of the season to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

Artem Anisimov, Boone Jenner, Ryan Murray and Jeremy Morin also scored for the Blue Jackets, who won their fifth in a row at home in a matchup of teams playing out the string in the regular season. Brandon Dubinsky added two assists.

David Booth hit a post on a third-period breakaway, the closest anyone came to scoring for the Maple Leafs, who have lost their past eight on the road (0-7-1) and have the fewest road wins (eight) of any team.

The Blue Jackets continued their strong play. They are 13-1-1 over their past 15 games, including a franchise-record nine-game win streak that ended with an overtime loss at the New York Rangers on Monday night.

It was Bobrovsky’s second shutout of the season. He is 9-0-1 in his past 10 starts.

The Blue Jackets put the game away in the opening period with a three-goal burst in a span of 5:09.

Anisimov got it started, trailing the play and taking a pass from Dubinsky in the slot to notch his seventh goal of the season at 13:51.

At 15:56, Jenner skated into the right circle where Ryan Johansen found him with a pass from the back wall. That gave Johansen 70 points, giving the Blue Jackets two players (joining Nick Foligno who has 72) with at least that many for the first time in franchise history.

Hartnell scored his 27th goal with a minute left in the period, taking a cross-ice pass from Marko Dano and tucking his high shot just inside the far post.

Dano almost scored when it was 1-0. He appeared to have jammed the puck past James Reimer and off the back of his skate and over the goal line. The crowd booed loudly when a replay was shown shortly after the officials ruled that the puck had not crossed the line.

There was plenty of opportunity to cheer.

Just 3:30 into the second period, after Eric Brewer went off for hooking Jenner on a breakaway, Murray flicked in a wrister through traffic from the left point.

It was his first goal of the season – and first in a year and two days, although only a span of 13 games – for Murray, who has missed most of this season with knee and ankle injuries. He was playing his first game after sitting out the past nine games.

That was it for Reimer, who allowed four goals on 20 shots. He was replaced by Jonathan Bernier.

Before the second period ended, Morin added to the scoring on a relatively innocent flip from the blue line that eluded Bernier at 16:34.

Notes: The Maple Leafs close out the season at home against Montreal on Saturday. … Columbus hosts Buffalo on Friday and plays at the New York Islanders on Saturday to finish up. … The Blue Jackets had a 70-point scorer only two of their first 13 seasons – Rick Nash with 79 in 2008-09 and Ray Whitney with 76 in 2002-03. … Bernier stopped 12 of 13 shots. … Columbus exceeded 500 man-games lost to injury this season, extending a franchise record, also the highest total in the NHL this season.

—

Follow Rusty Miller on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RustyMillerAP

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.