Sam Gagner had a goal and an assist as the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets won their seventh straight game with a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
Cam Atkinson and Matt Calvert also scored for the Blue Jackets (18-5-4), who have gone 8-0-1 in their last nine games.
Tyler Pitlick responded for the Oilers (15-12-5), who have lost five of their last six outings.
READ MORE: Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse out up to 12 weeks
Edmonton got on the scoreboard first, just past the midpoint of the opening period as a hard-charging Pitlick got to a rebound in the blue paint and chipped it over Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Oilers looked to have added another with four minutes left in the first, but winger Zack Kassian was determined to have interfered with the goalie on the play.
Columbus tied the game on the power play eight minutes into the second period when Gagner came back to haunt his old team, with a puck going off the toe of his skate and past Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot for his fourth goal in the last four games and 12th of the season.
The Blue Jackets made it 2-1 seven minutes into the third as a pass deflected to Atkinson and he hammered his 11th of the season past Talbot.
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Columbus added to its lead 1:36 later when Calvert took advantage of a sloppy Oilers line change and rifled a shot off Talbot’s arm and into the net.
The Jackets completely took over in the third, outshooting Edmonton 12-0 midway through the period.
Both teams are off until Friday, when the Oilers play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Blue Jackets play the second game of a three-game Western Canada road swing in Calgary.
Notes: It was the first of two meetings between the Oilers and Blue Jackets. The next time these teams will meet is on January 3rd in Columbus… Oilers defenceman Brandon Davidson played his first game of the year since injuring his shoulder in the season opener against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 12. It was good news for Edmonton, which announced fellow defender Darnell Nurse could miss up to three months following ankle surgery… Columbus captain Nick Foligno returned to the lineup after missing the past two games with the flu.
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