Garland scores twice again, Blue Jackets defeat Lightning to extend point streak to 7

TAMPA -- Conor Garland had his second straight two-goal game for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who extended their point streak to seven games with a 5-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old forward also scored twice in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. Garland has four goals in three games since being acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on March 6, and it is the first time he has recorded consecutive multigoal games in the NHL.

"Just winning is what matters, it's the best time of year to play in," Garland said. "You're going to be in tight games from here on out. It's stressful, but that's what makes it so fun."

Ivan Provorov and Kirill Marchenko scored for the Blue Jackets (33-21-10), who are 4-0-3 during their point streak. Sean Monahan and Zach Werenski each had two assists. Elvis Merzlikins made 16 saves and had an assist.

"The puck management was far better tonight than it's been," Columbus coach Rick Bowness said. "Listen, that was a very tired team tonight. They had a war in Buffalo, so they battled hard tonight, but I really liked the way we managed the game, managed the puck and obviously the special teams was the difference tonight."

Gage Goncalves and J.J. Moser scored for the Lightning (39-20-4), who have lost six of their past seven. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.

Goncalves, who missed the past four games with a lower-body injury, gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 13:38 of the first period. Nikita Kucherov sent a cross-ice pass to Goncalves, who dropped a pass back to Victor Hedman. Hedman then took a slap shot from above the left face-off circle that Goncalves tipped in the slot over Merzlikins' left shoulder.

"It's been hard on guys with all these games left and you don't get to practice...tonight was abnormally bad," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "I don't know what happened. It was a tough one. When you play a lot of games in this League you've got to work your way through it. This little rut we're in has lasted a lot longer than I anticipated."

Provorov tied it 1-1 at 5:57 of the second period with a one-timer through traffic from the blue line.

Garland put Columbus up 2-1 just 30 seconds later at 6:27, taking a pass from Kent Johnson and sliding a wrist shot from the slot through the five-hole of Vasilevskiy.

Marchenko made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 11:42. He buried a one-timer from the left circle past Vasilevskiy's blocker off a pass from Adam Fantilli.

"It's good, we're moving around, a couple of big goals tonight," Monahan said about the Blue Jackets' power play. "Special teams...you look at it, it could've potentially won the game."

Moser cut the deficit to 3-2 at 16:23 on a wrist shot from the point following a face-off win by Anthony Cirelli in the right circle.

"I think our execution was off," Cirelli said. "That's a good team over there that can make plays and put pucks in the net. We gave them too many chances and didn't execute well. It feels like we're got to figure out how to get back to our game. We've got to be a lot better."

Garland scored his second goal while on the power play at 4:00 of the third period. Monahan collected a loose puck in the slot and passed to Garland, who skated into the left circle and put a backhander under Vasilevskiy's blocker.

"He plays the right way," Werenski said about the impact Garland has made so far. "He competes. He works extremely hard in battles. He's a smaller guy, but he doesn't play like it and that brings everyone else into the fight."

Dante Fabbro secured the 5-2 final with an empty-net goal at 15:25.

NOTES: Marchenko has nine points (four goals, five assists) in a six-game streak. ... Blue Jackets forward Charlie Coyle extended his point streak to seven games (one goal, eight assists). ... Monahan has six points (two goals, four assists) over his past six games. ... With his goal, Goncalves set a new career high in points with 21 (eight goals, 13 assists). ... Kucherov has eight points (two goals, six assists) during a three-game streak. He also became the seventh player in NHL history with four consecutive 70-assist seasons.