Blue Jackets 3 - 6 Coyotes
Final
  for this game

Coyotes use rare burst of offense to beat Blue Jackets

Jan 4, 2015 - 6:22 AM Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Sam Gagner and Martin Hanzal scored in the second period and Arizona came from behind to down Columbus by a 6-3 count on Saturday.

Hanzal added three assists, Gagner ended up scoring twice, while Tobias Rieder and Kyle Chipchura also lit the lamp for the Coyotes, who have reeled off four wins in their last five outings.

Mike Smith backed up his offense with a 23-save victory.

"It was by far one of our best games of the year," Smith said. "We were just swarming all over the ice."

Fedor Tyutin, James Wisniewski and Ryan Johansen all tallied for the Blue Jackets, who opened up a four-game road trip by having their two-game win streak halted.

Sergei Bobrovsky surrendered six goals on 31 shots in defeat.

The hosts' comeback effort began on the advantage, when Ekman-Larsson evened the score at 2-2 with 6:33 played in the second. He moved all the way from the point to the Columbus crease and popped home a Hanzal rebound which squeezed past Bobrovsky.

Gagner (power-play) and Hanzal (even strength) then scored in a span of 43 seconds inside the final 90 seconds of the middle stanza to give their club some separation.

Chipchura made it 5-2 at 3:37 of the third, and Gagner pumped home another power-play goal at 5:03, this one a redirection of a Keith Yandle lead pass from the high slot.

Johansen closed out the scoring with one minute left in regulation.

"(The battle to compete) was not there," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "It was not at the level it needed to be to go out and win a hockey game."

Rieder's backhander off an errant Lauri Korpikoski shot was the lone goal of the first period, giving the hosts a lead at 13:17.

Tyutin and Wisniewski scored in a span of 2:04 early in the second period to give Columbus the lead. The former put his club on the board with a slapshot from the left circle at 2:35 and the latter did so from virtually the same location with 4:39 elapsed.

Game Notes

Saturday marked only the third time this season the Coyotes have scored at least six times (7-4 W in Edmonton on Oct. 15 and 6-5 W at Washington on Nov. 2) ... Hanzal's four points was a season high ... Arizona continues its six- game residency on Tuesday against St. Louis while Columbus moves on to Denver on Sunday.






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