Blue Jackets 4, Senators 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Left winger Boone Jenner scored two goals, and left winger Brandon Saad added his club-leading 21st goal of the season, to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday in Nationwide Arena.
Right winger Cam Atkinson also scored while defenseman Seth Jones had two assists as the Blue Jackets improved to 6-1-2 since Jan. 22.
Columbus improved to 6-1-2 since Jan. 22.
Rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo finished with 32 saves and continued a torrid stretch of play since he took over for injured starter Sergei Bobrovsky.
Ottawa right winger Bobby Ryan scored a 5-on-3 power play goal early in the third period, and defenseman Codi Ceci scored later in the period, but the Senators ran out of the time.
Senators goaltender Craig Anderson finished with 36 saves, while Ottawa lost for the third straight game.
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead at 18:29 of the first.
Jones, who has 10 points, all assists, since he was acquired in a trade with Nashville, sent in a slap shot from the right circle, and the puck trickled behind Anderson.
Jenner rushed the net and dived toward the puck, poking it across the line for his 19th goal, a career high.
The Jackets pushed the lead to 2-0 at 14:47 of the second when Atkinson potted his 19th of the season.
Atkinson, with space in the slot, dropped to one knee for extra torque on a one-timer off a set-up from center Brandon Dubinsky.
The Senators took advantage of Blue Jackets' penalties early in the third period to finally reach the scoreboard.
Jenner went off for tripping only 46 seconds into the third, and Atkinson went to the box for high sticking at 1:41, giving the Senators a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:05.
It only took Ottawa 38 seconds before Ryan fired into an open net above Korpisalo, who was still down from a previous save and had lost his stick.
Saad finished a 2-on-1 with Blue Jackets left winger Scott Hartnell to give the Jackets a 3-1 lead with 5:35 left but Ceci responded with only 4:17 to play to get the score back to a one-goal margin.
Jenner's empty-net goal with 43.7 seconds remaining capped the scoring.
Both teams had scary moments involving one of their players in the second period.
At 10:47 of the second, Ottawa defenseman Mark Borowiecki and Saad got tangled as they slammed into the corner, but Borowiecki took the worst of the blow.
He appeared unconscious when he hit the ice after slamming into the wall, and the Senators training staff hurried on to the ice and called for a stretcher.
Moments later, Borowiecki rose to his feet and skated to the dressing room with a little help, holding a towel to his face. He did not return to the game.
Later in the period, Korpisalo had a puck deflect off his glove and strike him in the throat, sending him crumpling to the ice face-first.
After a brief chat with the Blue Jackets trainer, Korpisalo was allowed to stay in the game.
NOTES: Blue Jackets D David Savard, out since Jan. 13 because of a strained oblique muscle, was activated from the Injured Reserve list and returned to the lineup. He was paired with D Jack Johnson on the No. 2 back line. ... Ottawa LW Ryan Dzingel played his first NHL game in Nationwide Arena, but at least the city was familiar. Dzingel was captain at Ohio State and scored 45 goals in a three-year span before the Senators drafted him in the seventh round in 2011.