Blue Jackets win 15th straight, halt Wild ride at 12 games
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Cam Atkinson scored twice and Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who extended their winning streak to 15 games while snapping Minnesota's run of 12 straight wins with a 4-2 victory over the Wild on Saturday.
Defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones also scored for Columbus, which hasn't lost since Nov. 26 in overtime at Florida. Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker scored for Minnesota.
Brandon Saad added two assists for the Blue Jackets, who are two games away from tying the longest win streak in NHL history set by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1993.
Bobrovsky won his last 13 starts and allowed two goals or fewer in 11 games during that span.
Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk allowed four goals on 25 shots.
The two teams downplayed the meeting, which was the first in NHL history between teams with active win streaks of 12 or more games, according to STATS. The environment matched the hype, though with a packed house and the intensity clear from the players' perspective.
A fortunate recovery led to the game's only goal in the first period as a Minnesota pass couldn't be corralled by two Wild players before Atkinson picked up the puck while leaving the offensive zone. He quickly turned around for a breakaway and beat Dubnyk between the pads as Columbus scored first for an NHL-leading 24th time this season.
In the second period, Minnesota's Chris Stewart and Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson talked for a few moments before dropping the gloves. As Stewart and Anderson were being sent to the penalty box, Wild defenseman Matt Dumba and Columbus' Matt Calvert started another fight - drawing matching game misconducts.
The Blue Jackets then scored twice within 76 seconds after the two fights ended. Johnson ripped a shot high past Dubnyk and Atkinson scored his second of the game 15 seconds later, tapping home a centering pass from Ryan Murray.
Atkinson has nine goals and seven assists in his past 12 games.
Granlund scored his 10th of the season on the power-play two minutes later. Jones returned the three-goal advantage late in the second with his seventh of the season.
Dubnyk started the season by going 27 games without allowing four goals or more. He's now allowed at least four in each of the past two games.
NOTES: Saturday's game featured eight of the top nine players in the league in plus/minus this season. Minnesota D Ryan Suter led the NHL at plus-25 coming into the game. D Jared Spurgeon, LW Jason Zucker, C Mikko Koivu and C Mikael Granlund also represented the Wild in the top-9. D David Savard, D Jack Johnson and LW Brandon Saad make the list for Columbus. ... Saturday was the first matchup between teams with active win streaks of 12 games or more in the history of the NHL, NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. ... Minnesota scratched D Nate Prosser while Columbus scratched F Markus Hannikainen, D Dalton Prout and D Scott Harrington. ... The Blue Jackets return home Tuesday to host the Edmonton Oilers. The Wild have a stretch of time off before playing at San Jose on Thursday.