Jackets get franchise-record 61 shots, beat Coyotes in SO
PHOENIX (AP) Columbus pummeled Mike Smith with a franchise-record 61 shots, Alexander Wennberg scored with 2:16 left in the third period and the Blue Jackets beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night.
Smith set a franchise record with 59 saves, but the Coyotes still lost their third straight.
Cam Atkinson and Sam Gagner scored on Smith in the shootout while Curtis McElhinney stopped both Arizona shooters. Boone Jenner also scored for Columbus, which has won three straight.
Shane Doan got his 399th career goal and Radim Vrbata also scored for Arizona, which was playing its eighth overtime game in 23 contests.
Doan put Arizona ahead 2-1 at 11:04 of the second when he redirected Michael Stone's lobbed shot from just inside the blue line along the right boards.
Wennberg tied it at 2 by backhanding the puck between Smith's pads off a pass from Brandon Saad.
The Blue Jackets needed only 13 seconds to take the lead in the first period. Jenner took a pass from Jack Johnson between the hashes and fired over Smith's glove.
Smith made 47 saves between the two Columbus goals and 21 in the third period alone.
After failing to take advantage of a two-man advantage late in the first, the Coyotes evened the score on Vrbata's rising shot off McElhinney's blocker from the left faceoff circle for a power-play goal 63 seconds into the second period.
Smith helped preserve the lead with 5:30 left in the second, stopping Saad's breakaway attempt with a sprawling pad save.
McElhinney finished with 32 saves.
NOTES: McElhinney was making his fourth start of the season and first since Nov. 21. ... The Blue Jackets activated LW Matt Calvert from injured reserve on Friday. Calvert, who had missed Columbus' past five games with an upper-body injury, has two goals and an assist in 17 games this season. ... The Coyotes recalled C Tyler Gaudet from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Friday, giving Arizona 13 forwards on its roster. It's Gaudet's second stint with the Coyotes following a one-game appearance in early November.
UP NEXT
The teams will complete a home-and-home series Monday night in Columbus.
