Oilers rout Blue Jackets, 7-2
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Mark Letestu scored a short-handed goal and had an assist, and Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.
The Oilers (13-16-2) took control of the game with four second-period goals and wrapped up a three-game road trip with a 2-1-0 record.
Two of the second-period goals came from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Milan Lucic on power plays. Matt Benning scored at even strength, and Letestu's short-handed goal beat Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with 0.3 of a second left in the period on a breakaway.
Edmonton's Zack Kassian had the lone goal in the first period. Jesse Puljujarvi and McDavid capped the Oilers' big offensive night in the third period.
Puljujarvi, Anton Slepyshev, Michael Cammalleri, Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse each contributed an assist for the Oilers.
Oliver Bjorkstrand ended Laurent Brossoit's shutout bid at 6:28 of the third period, and Jack Johnson added the other goal for the Blue Jackets (19-11-1).
Brossoit finished with 28 saves to post just his third victory of the season.
Bobrovsky was pulled after two periods, having stopped just 21 of 26 shots. Backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo gave up two goals and made 10 saves in the third period for the Blue Jackets, whose two-game winning streak ended.
Kassian opening the scoring at 5:55 of the first period with his third goal of the season. Letestu sent a quick pass between the legs of Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson that left Bobrovsky out of position, and Kassian lifted a close-range wrist shot into an open net.
Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-0 in the second, taking a cross-ice pass and putting a wrist shot past Bobrovsky.
Benning scored next, followed by Lucic with an assist from McDavid and then Letestu's breakaway at the close of the second period that gave the Oilers an insurmountable 5-0 lead.
NOTES: Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky leads the NHL in shutouts with four after he blanked the Arizona Coyotes 1-0 on Saturday night. ... Blue Jackets D Ryan Murray missed his seventh consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ... Oilers LW Anton Slepyshev returned to the lineup after being scratched for four games. He replaced LW Drake Caggiula. ... Blue Jackets LW Cam Atkinson was back in the lineup after sitting out the Saturday night game as a healthy scratch. The team's leading scorer the past two seasons had no points in the previous six games. ... Oilers C Mark Letestu reached 200 career points with an assist on Saturday against Montreal.