The Columbus Blue Jackets scored seven goals on Tuesday night, November 3, beating the Colorado Avalanche 7-2 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus behind a four-point game from Charlie Coyle, according to NHL.com and the Associated Press reporting carried by TSN. The win snapped a two-game skid for Columbus and ended Colorado’s three-game winning streak.
Columbus set the tone almost immediately. Mathieu Olivier scored 28 seconds into the game from the edge of the crease, finishing the rebound of a Coyle shot, and Ivan Provorov added a power-play goal at 7:37 of the first period to make it 2-0, NHL.com reported. Colorado’s Cale Makar cut the lead to 2-1 later in the first period, scoring with an assist, but the Avalanche never caught up.
The game broke open in the second period, when Columbus scored four times in a span of 8 minutes and 23 seconds, according to NHL.com. Jacob Christiansen made it 3-1 at 4:19 of the period, Cole Sillinger pushed the lead to 4-1 at 7:20 and chased Colorado starting goaltender Scott Wedgewood, and Coyle scored at 12:03 to make it 5-1. Valeri Nichushkin scored 39 seconds after Coyle, and the two goals in quick succession put Columbus ahead 6-1.
Colorado’s only other goal came on a 5-on-3 power play, when Nazem Kadri scored at 16:35 of the second period, NHL.com reported. Nathan MacKinnon recorded two assists for the Avalanche and extended his point streak to six games, while Makar finished with a goal and an assist in the loss.
Coyle closed the scoring at 11:21 of the third period with his second goal of the night, giving him two goals and two assists and tying his NHL career high for points in a single game, according to NHL.com and the Associated Press. Sillinger and Nichushkin each finished with a goal and an assist, and Olivier finished with a goal and two assists.
The line of Sillinger, Coyle and Olivier drove the result. NHL.com reported the three combined for nine points — four goals and five assists — while matched against Colorado’s top line of Artturi Lehkonen, MacKinnon and Martin Necas, which finished the night a combined minus-9. Zach Werenski added two assists for Columbus, continuing a four-game point streak with six assists in that span, according to NHL.com.
In goal, Cam Talbot made 27 saves for Columbus, according to NHL.com and the Associated Press. Wedgewood allowed four goals on nine shots in 27 minutes and 20 seconds before Mackenzie Blackwood replaced him and made 12 saves for Colorado, NHL.com reported. Colorado was playing the second night of a back-to-back after beating Chicago 5-2 on Monday, a scheduling detail noted in the Associated Press report.
“You want guys to get going and feeling good about themselves, especially in games like this,” Coyle told NHL.com. “It’s great for a team to have these wins, just kind of knowing that we’re trending in the right way.” Sillinger told NHL.com the line’s defensive work came first: “We were just clicking. I thought we played responsible in all three zones and when you’re responsible in your defensive zone, that tends to lead to good offense.”
Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness credited both the scoring and the goaltending. “There’s a lot of guys in there that can score goals and put points up,” Bowness told NHL.com. “It finally went in for us tonight.” He pointed to a breakaway save Talbot made on Logan O’Connor shortly before Christiansen’s goal, telling The Columbus Dispatch: “Go back to that breakaway save Cam Talbot made. We had some timely goals, right? Man, we got some incredibly timely saves from Cam. He was outstanding tonight.”
The night carried an extra storyline for Nichushkin, who faced Colorado for the first time since the Avalanche traded him to Columbus on June 25 after 404 games with the Avalanche, according to NHL.com. The Columbus Dispatch reported his goal was his second of the season. Columbus also wore its new gray jerseys with blue trim, part of the NHL’s league-wide “Hometown Remix” uniform rollout, and The Columbus Dispatch reported the team will wear them 12 more times at home before the calendar turns to 2027.
The seven goals were a season high for a Columbus team that had struggled to score. Reporting by Field Level Media noted Columbus entered the night 29th in the NHL at 2.33 goals per game and passed that average on Christiansen’s second-period goal alone.
Ohio hockey and college fans can also catch up on Cleveland State’s women’s upset of Penn State, Ohio’s rally past Akron in MACtion, and Miami’s overtime loss to Buffalo in NewsForce247’s Ohio sports coverage.
What happens next is a quick turnaround at home: Columbus hosts the Dallas Stars on Thursday, November 5, at Nationwide Arena, according to the schedule reported by NHL.com and the Associated Press, while Colorado hosts the Nashville Predators on Thursday. After a seven-goal night against one of the league’s top teams, Thursday’s game will show whether the outburst was a one-night release or the start of a scoring run.