NHL | Winnipeg – Columbus 1:4, Rittich did not prevent Winnipeg’s loss in the NHL

Laine opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a swing from the right circle to the near post, and at 10:42 Erik Gundbranson put the ball past Pierre-Luc Dubois’ own net. At the beginning of the second period, Laine came through again, this time finishing a quick counterattack from the left side into an open goal. Gustav Nyquist added the fourth goal from another counterattack. Winnipeg’s honorable success was scored by Dubois in the 56th minute.

“We didn’t give our best performance. A lot of guys played bad, we had a lot of windows in defense,” acknowledged Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness. “I told the players that everyone should look into their conscience and find fault with themselves first,” he added.

Laine, who came to Columbus from Winnipeg, had a chance to complete a hat trick when the home team played without a goalkeeper. One hit the post and the second his shot was stopped by the skate of Blake Wheeler. The Blue Jackets, who have been playing without the injured Jakub Voráček for a month, also had Johnny Gaudreau with three assists as the main architects of the win. Goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo caught 37 shots.

“Even if I didn’t score and played poorly, I’m happy with the win. That’s the most important thing,” said Laine, who missed the previous seven games due to ankle problems. “During the morning skate, I was checking if it would work, and I felt good. It put me in a good mood, I was positive, and I’m glad that our line did well as well.”

Nashville led 2:0 in the middle of the game with hits from power plays, which they used after a successful combination of Filip Forsberg and a shot from the blue line by Roman Josi. The Islanders beat Kevin Lankinen, who blocked 48 shots, only in the 52nd minute on a pinpoint shot by Matthew Barzal. The remaining two goals were scored by Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund when the home team played without a goalkeeper.

“The game could be summed up by the sentence that their goalkeeper had a great day,” said Barzal, the author of nine shots. “It is necessary to position them better. The match could easily have ended the other way,” he added. On the winning side, Duchene scored three hundred goals, among players drafted in 2009, only Toronto’s leader John Tavares (403) is better.

Rangers led twice. The first goal of the match was scored by Vitalij Kravtsov from close range, and in the 47th minute, Mika Zibanejad converted from the crossbar to make it 2:1. Tim Stützle equalized for the first time on the power play, and Brady Tkachuk controlled the finish. The Ottawa forward sent the game flowing at 59:11 into overtime, which he decided on a solo breakaway with 18 seconds left.

“We also had two chances in overtime. But we can be glad we got into it because we didn’t play well at all in the first two periods,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said.

Friday’s results resembled a revolt of the outsiders. Columbus is last in the Eastern Conference, Ottawa has just one point more. “Everyone pitched in, it’s a valuable win. It gives us a confidence boost and I hope we can bounce back from it to have a good streak,” said Tkachuk, who scored his 100th goal in his 300th anniversary game in the NHL. Among the players drafted in 2018, only Carolina forward Andrej Svečnikov (103) surpassed the three-digit goals mark.

On the Rangers side, Filip Chytil was active with five shots, but did not score for the second time in a row. His teammate Libor Hájek blocked two Ottawa shots and scored one.