Rather than bouncing back from a gut-wrenching loss, the Blue Jackets were bounced by the Calgary Flames x-1 on Nov. 5 at Saddledome to start a four-game trip.
After allowing goals 36 seconds apart in the game’s first 1:32, falling behind 2-0, the Jackets allowed two more in a span of 37 seconds in the second to trail 4-1 starting the third.
The two scoring bursts provided plenty of scoring for the Flames (4-9-2), who got an outstanding performance from goalie Dustin Wolf (42 saves). Jet Greaves started for the Blue Jackets (7-6-0), who outshot the Flames 22-6 in the third period without scoring.
As if things weren’t bad enough for the Jackets, they also lost top center Sean Monahan to an apparent upper-body injury. Monahan was injured during a collision with Flames defenseman Rasmus Anderson behind the Flames’ net in the second, but finished the period. He left the bench at 4:45 of the third after his third shift of the period.
Adam Fantilli picked up Monahan’s shifts, skating with Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov. Marchenko scored the lone Columbus goal while killing a penalty late in the first for his sixth goal of the season and first short-handed goal of his NHL career.
Morgan Frost and Blake Coleman scored back-to-back goals for the Flames to start the game. Calgary’s second set of back-to-back goals were scored in the second period by Nazem Kadri and Adam Klapka. Mikael Backlund scored into an empty net late in the third to complete the scoring in Kadri’s 1,000th NHL game.
The loss was the Blue Jackets’ second straight after coughing up a 2-1 lead Nov. 2 at the New York Islanders in stinging 3-2 loss at UBS Arena. The Islanders scored those two goals just 29 seconds apart in the final 1:07 of the game.
The Blue Jackets now head to Vancouver for a game Nov. 8 followed by games Nov. 10 at the Edmonton Oilers and Nov. 11 at the Seattle Kraken.
Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets torched by Calgary Flames to open road trip.
