Alex Khokhlachev scored the winner in the seventh round of a shootout in his second National Hockey League game, leading the Boston Bruins over the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 on Friday night.
Khokhlachev’s forehand goal came after Niklas Svedberg stopped all seven Columbus shooters, including the final one, Matt Calvert.
The Bruins got three goals in the third period to overcome a 2-0 deficit, then hung on after Columbus pulled even on Jack Johnson’s goal with 7:13 left in regulation.
Dennis Seidenberg scored on a 78-foot shot from the neutral zone and Matt Fraser and Daniel Paille also scored for Boston. Matt Bartkowski, an Ohio State product, had two assists for the Bruins.
Ryan Johansen had a goal and two assists, Nick Foligno scored and had an assist and Sergei Bobrovsky had 38 saves for the Blue Jackets.
Bobrovsky had stopped the Bruins’ first 23 shots, some with stellar plays. However, shortly after making three saves on a Boston power play, he surrendered a softie early in the third period.
Seidenberg was two strides over the center line when he fired the puck on net — measured at 78 feet — and it somehow slid between Bobrovsky’s leg pads to make it 2-1.
The Bruins then pulled even at the 9:33 mark. Patrice Bergeron settled a bouncing puck and passed to Bartkowski, whose hard shot from the right point was redirected by Fraser for the tying goal.
Just over a minute later, Paille netted his first of the season. He pounced on a loose puck in the high slot, spun and wristed it in for a 3-2 lead with 8:28 remaining in regulation.
The Blue Jackets, who had also been getting prime scoring chances all night, came right back to even things when Johnson stepped into a shot at the left dot with 7:13 left in the third.
At Pittsburgh, Kyle Okposo scored in the third round of the shootout, sending the New York Islanders to a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins and its seventh win in eight games.
Sidney Crosby and New York’s Frans Nielsen scored in the second round and Islanders goaltender Chad Johnson stopped Brandon Sutter. Okposo deked to his forehand, slipping a shot that hit off Marc-Andre Fleury’s pad and into the net for the win.
Matt Martin, Nikolay Kulemin and Ryan Strome scored in an impressive flurry in the first, helping the Islanders to the early lead. Strome also had two assists.
Cory Schneider made 29 saves in his second shutout of the season, leading the New Jersey Devils to a 2-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Adam Henrique and Tuomo Ruutu scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in their last nine games. Eric Gelinas had two assists.
The New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres game was postponed due to heavy snow in the Buffalo area.
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