Blue Jackets 7, Coyotes 5
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Columbus entered Thursday's game with the fifth-fewest goals in the NHL. That statistic hasn't mattered when the Blue Jackets face the Arizona Coyotes.
Seven Columbus players scored, 11 had points, and right wingers Brandon Saad, Cam Atkinson and center Alex Wennberg led the way with a goal and two assists apiece as the Blue Jackets snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-5 win over the Coyotes on Thursday at Gila River Arena.
The Blue Jackets (12-19-3) have scored 12 goals in two meetings with Arizona this season, or 14.5 percent of their goals in 35 games.
Arizona (14-15-2) lost its second game in a row and dropped its first game without goalie Mike Smith, who underwent abdominal surgery Tuesday. The seven goals were the most the Coyotes allowed this season.
Left winger Tobias scored twice for Arizona.
Two Coyotes goalies each faced 10 shots. Anders Lindback made six saves, and Louis Domingue stopped eight.
Columbus goalie Curtis McElhinney made 27 saves.
The Blue Jackets had two goals in their previous two games combined, but they scored on their first two shots Thursday.
Wennberg carried the puck into the zone and Coyotes defenseman Michael Stone came across to pick him up, leaving Saad all alone in the slot to pick up the loose puck and beat Lindback high to the stick side just 58 seconds into the game for his 11th goal of the season.
Blue Jackets left winger Matt Calvert widened the lead to 2-0 at 2:26 when Lindback's pass up the boards eluded defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Atkinson intercepted the pass and fed Calvert for a point blank shot from the slot.
Former Blue Jacket center Antoine Vermette pulled Arizona within 2-1 at 8:51 of the first. Vermette tried a wraparound on McElhinney that slid off his stick to center Brandon Dubinsky, but in attempting to clear it, Dubinsky gave it right back to Vermette for an open-side goal.
The teams traded five goals in a 4:06 span of the second period.
Arizona tied the game when right winger Viktor Tikhonov banged home a rebound of defenseman Michael Stone's shot from the point on the power play at 8:15.
Only 10 seconds later, Rieder scored his seventh goal of the season off a terrific pass from the half wall by Vermette to give Arizona a 3-2 lead.
Wennberg answered 45 seconds later with a wrist shot from the slot to tie the game, and Atkinson gave the Jackets a brief 4-3 lead 1:13 later with another wrist shot that ended Lindback's night.
Two minutes after Domingue entered the game, Coyotes left winger Jordan Martinook tied the game when his wraparound attempt glanced off the skate of Columbus defenseman Kevin Connauton and past McElhinney at 12:21 of the second.
Columbus took a 5-4 lead with 2:49 left in the period when Nick Foligno beat Domingue to the glove side on a breakaway, off a stretch pass from Saad.
NOTES: Blue Jackets C Ryan Johansen was a healthy scratch one game after coach John Tortorella benched him for the third period in Dallas. "It's just a reset for him in trying to have him understand what we're looking for, not just in the points but in the play," Tortorella told the Columbus Dispatch. "You can't look at it as a punishment; it's part of the process for him." ... Coyotes G Mike Smith underwent abdominal surgery this week and will miss eight to 10 weeks. ... Coyotes C Martin Hanzal (lower body) missed his fourth consecutive game, and D Zbynek Michalek (lower body) missed his second straight. ... Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky (groin) sat out his fifth consecutive game. ... D Jack Johnson (upper body) and D David Savard (lower body) both missed the game, robbing Columbus of its top defensive pairing. ... Coyotes RW Anthony Duclair missed the game with an illness.