Connor Garland records another two-goal outing with Jackets Down Lightning

Connor Garland had his second straight two-goal game as the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets swept the Tampa Bay Lightning’s three-game series of the season 5-2 on Tuesday night.

Garland, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade last week, broke a 24-game scoreless drought with two markers in Columbus’ 5-4 overtime home loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. He has now scored four goals through two games for his new team.

The Blue Jackets also got tallies from Ivan Provorov, Dante Fabbro and Kirill Marchenko. Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan each had two assists for Columbus, who moved to 15-2-3 in his last 20 contests to begin a three-game road trip. Goaltender Elvis Mertzlikins stopped 16 shots.

The Lightning, who fell to 1-6-0 in their last seven games and playing their third game in four days, got goals from Gage Goncalves and JJ Moser. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.

The Lightning killed off two minor penalties before Victor Hedman scored on a blast that gave Goncalves a 1-0 lead at 13:38 of the first period.

In the final moments of the opening frame, Vasilevskiy kept the margin going by blocking a breakaway attempt by Garland and a close shot by Kent Johnson.

In the second, the Blue Jackets scored twice in a 30-second span to take a 2-1 advantage.

Provorov’s shot through traffic was deflected off Hedman to tie the game at 5:57. Johnson then found Garland alone and put the visitor over the top.

The Blue Jackets’ quick puck movement on the third power play ended when Marchenko connected on one by a stickless Vasilevskiy from the left circle at 11:42 of the second for a 3-1 advantage.

Moser scored his career-high tying seventh at 16:23 of the middle frame to make it a one-goal game again.

Garland scored his second point four minutes into the third with a backhander and Fabbro hit an empty net with less than five minutes remaining for the final margin.

–Field level media