Columbus Blue Jackets' Jake Bean, left, tries to clear the puck as Vancouver Canucks' Conor Garland defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game on Jan. 15 in Columbus, Ohio.Jay LaPrete/The Associated Press
Kirill Marchenko scored the only goal in a four-round shootout to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-3 win over Vancouver Monday, ending the Canucks’ five-game winning streak.
After Marchenko slid the puck between Casey DeSmith’s pads, Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins blocked Pius Suter’s shot to help the Blue Jackets end a three-game losing streak.
Columbus rallied three times in regulation with Dmitri Voronkov’s second goal of the game with 9:03 left in the third period forcing the overtime.
Yegor Chinakhov also had a goal and Merzlikins made 27 saves.
Merzlikins played for the first time since Dec. 29 and said Friday he was angry and talking to management about moving him to another team.
“I’m really happy for the boys,” the 29-year-old Latvian said. “After my last interview, everybody knows I requested a trade. Everyone was still here, playing for me and playing for me, and blocking shots for me. This was awesome. I really appreciate that. It wasn’t an easy game for me, and they made me feel [better].”
J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver. Conor Garland also scored and DeSmith had 41 stops for the Pacific Division leaders.
The Canucks finished their long road trip at 5-1-1.
“I loved that we got a point,” Miller said. “[DeSmith] was unreal. It could have been a lot worse than it was. We’ve done a good job as a group lately. That was kind of a dud for us.”
Miller got credit for his 20th goal on a deflected puck that tumbled past Merzlikins in the first period.
Thirty seconds later, Chinakhov was waiting for a perfect pass from Johnny Gaudreau from behind the goal line and beat DeSmith in close. Garland’s one-timer from the slot gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead late in the first.
Voronkov deflected in a long shot by Adam Boqvist to tie the game at 2 early in the second period. On a power play later in the period, Pettersson beat Merzlikins over the glove from the right dot for his 23rd goal of the season and eighth in the last six games.
“Our skating is good, and we wanted to pressure them, force them make plays under pressure that’s what we’ve done,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said.