Greaves shines again, lifts Blue Jackets past Senators

OTTAWA -- Jet Greaves made 27 saves in his second start in as many nights for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.

“All six defensemen, all 12 forwards did a great job tonight,” Greaves said. “I think everyone bought in. I think there was a lot of consistency throughout, you know, how everyone was playing, just kind of playing how we want to for the full 60 minutes, and there’s a positive result there.”

Greaves also made 24 saves in a 4-2 win against the New York Islanders on Sunday.

“Gutsy, gutsy win,” Columbus captain Boone Jenner said. “Played for each other and did everything we could, gave everything we had, and got the result. I loved the way we played and battled for each other. Jet kept us in it and made some huge saves when he needed to. We just kept coming and we were able to get some goals.”

Damon Severson had a goal and an assist, and Cole Sillinger and Charlie Coyle each had two assists for the Blue Jackets (17-15-6), who have won three in a row.

“A couple big [wins] back-to-back for us coming out of the Christmas break,” Severson said. “Now we’ve got one more to finish off 2025, hopefully get out on a high and get us back to where we’re looking to be."

Tim Stutzle extended his point streak to 10 games with an assist, Jake Sanderson scored and Leevi Merilainen made 18 saves for the Senators (18-15-5), who have lost three straight (0-2-1) after a four-game winning streak.

“Not very good. There wasn’t a lot of good in our game tonight,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I don’t say that very often, but that was probably one of our worst games of the year, I think.”

The NHL had to push the game’s start time back 30 minutes to 7:30 p.m. ET due to the Blue Jackets’ late arrival. The team’s flight on Sunday was canceled due to mechanical issues, and Monday’s inclement weather resulted in Columbus finally touching down in Ottawa at around 3:50 p.m. ET.

“Not going to lie, it’s a different day, for sure,” Jenner said. “We’re used to waking up in the city you’re playing in, having your nap, having your pregame meal, all that. So, that was all out the window. It was a crazy day to say the least. When we got here, we just wanted to play for each other.”

Jenner gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 15:58 of the first period, redirecting a centering pass from Sillinger over Merilainen’s left pad.

Severson one-timed a pass from forward Dmitri Voronkov past Merilainen’s blocker on a rush to push it to 2-0 at 1:21 of the second period.

“Our guys don’t care. They don’t care,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said of the adversity his team faced on Monday. “They just play hockey. They’ve done that. Yeah, maybe we didn’t have the results earlier in the year, but for the most part we’ve played the same way. Our guys don’t care about any of the distractions outside of that dressing room and in the arena, and that allows them to have a chance to win hockey games.”

Sanderson cut it to 2-1 at 8:16. Stutzle found Sanderson streaking down the left side, and the defenseman beat Greaves under his left pad with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

Stutzle has eight goals and nine assists during his 10-game point streak.

“I thought we had a great second period,” Sanderson said. “We didn’t really give them many opportunities, and just, the momentum didn’t carry on into the third. We were flat, loose, just giving up too many odd-man rushes, which is unlike our team. You’ve got to learn from it.”

Denton Mateychuk extended Columbus’ lead to 3-1 at 1:57 of the third period, scoring with a snap shot from the point that beat Merilainen glove side.

“Obviously, not good enough,” said Senators center Shane Pinto, who returned from a lower-body injury that forced him to miss 10 games. “I think we left Leevi out to dry there a little bit. Just didn’t play our game. I think we had a tough home showing, but we’ve got to come back better on [Thursday] and try to win a game.”

Kirill Marchenko scored with a curl-and-drag snap shot into the top left corner on a rush to make it 4-1 at 15:54.

“It looked like we were half a step behind everywhere,” Green said. “Our passing wasn’t very good. Usually, when you’re not skating well you’re going to be late to a lot of places. I thought we looked slow tonight.”