Sillinger's OT goal and Merzlikins' 25 saves give Blue Jackets 2-1 win over Golden Knights

Published Jan. 31, 2025 12:47 a.m. ET

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Cole Sillinger, who missed the previous three games because of an upper-body injury, scored on a rebound 52 seconds into overtime to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 2-1 victory Thursday night over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Adam Fantilli, skating in his 100th career game, scored the other Blue Jackets goal, and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 shots.

Tomas Hertl scored his 20th goal of the season for the Golden Knights and Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves.

Hertl extended his point streak to 11 games (nine goals, six assists), just one off the club record set by Jack Eichel during the 2023-24 season. It is the NHL's longest active streak. Hertl also had eight goals in his past eight games.

Columbus has points in 10 of the past 12 games, going 9-2-1.

By picking up a point, the Golden Knights remained in a tie for first place in the Pacific Division with the Edmonton Oilers with 68 points.

Eichel's goal streak (three games) and point streak (seven) ended.

Takeaways

Blue Jackets: Columbus held off an early Vegas onslaught to make the game competitive. The Golden Knights had an 8-2 advantage in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, but just a 1-0 lead.

Golden Knights: Vegas was top heavy with its top two lines totaling 25 scoring chances to 17 for Columbus. The bottom lines were another story, with the Blue Jackets having the decided edge at 11-4.

Key moment

The Golden Knights appeared as if they would go into the first intermission ahead 1-0, but Samsonov failed to corral the puck in crease. Fantilli dug it out, and the puck trickled in with 1:26 left.