COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets were struggling. It was nearly seven minutes deep into the second period, and the New York Rangers held a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard and a 21-4 advantage on the shot counter.
Mathieu Olivier, a Blue Jackets third-line winger and, quite possibly, the NHL’s toughest customer, was readying for his next shift when he shouted instructions down the bench to the defensive pair that would join him on the ice soon.
“He literally told the next pair (Denton Mateychuk and Damon Severson) to get (the puck) in his corner,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “He was going to be physical and try to get things started up a bit, and he did.”
Poor Matthew Robertson. The Rangers defenseman went deep to retrieve the puck and absorbed a hard, legal hit in the corner, with an audible boom resonating through Nationwide Arena just a notch below a cannon’s blast.
Olivier did his job, helping the Blue Jackets rescue a point out of a chess-match meeting with the Rangers. J.T. Miller’s goal in the third round of a shootout gave New York a 2-1 win before 16,298 fans in Nationwide.
Dmitri Voronkov scored the only goal in regulation for the Blue Jackets, and Kirill Marchenko was the only shooter to score in the shootout. The Blue Jackets, with the loser’s point, are on a four-game point streak during their busiest stretch of the season.
Marchenko’s assist on Voronkov’s goal extended his career-long point streak to 11 games, tied for the third longest in franchise history.
This was not an easy night for offense, though. Neither team scored at even strength.
Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves made 31 saves in regulation and overtime before allowing shootout goals to Vincent Trocheck and Miller, who ended the game by scoring a nasty back-down wrister from the slot in the third round.
“It was obviously a really good shot,” Greaves said. “(Miller’s) obviously a good player, and he picked a spot there. But at the same time, it’s my job to make saves, especially in the shootout there to give us a chance.
“It’s a save I’d like to make, but it’s a good job by (Miller), for sure.”
THE CAPTAIN WINS IT IN THE SHOOTOUT. pic.twitter.com/rVq8iBITLx
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) November 16, 2025
Shootout losses are always hard to quantify emotionally. A generation ago, the Rangers and Blue Jackets would have accepted a 1-1 tie and moved on to their next opponent. But the shootout — a coin flip exhibition of skill — makes for a winner and a loser.
The Blue Jackets will regret the game’s start. They were overwhelmed by the Rangers, and didn’t lose their composure or structure. But Columbus was outplayed by its Metro rival.
One of the few chances the Blue Jackets had in the first period came on a penalty shot by winger Miles Wood, after New York’s Taylor Raddysh slashed him on a breakaway.
Wood could not score on Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who made 24 saves and was the game’s first star. After that, the Blue Jackets settled back into their shell, chasing the Rangers and the puck rather than carrying it.
“Those are tough games,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “They’re divisional games, so points are very important. Once we started to realize it wasn’t going to be easy tonight, we started playing better.
“We started playing a little bit harder and making it simpler on ourselves. The second half of the game, I thought, was even.”
It took Olivier — and a Rangers 1-0 lead — to get them there, though.
After failed clearing attempts on the penalty kill by Mateychuk, Cole Sillinger and Ivan Provorov, the Rangers took a 1-0 lead on Mika Zibanejad’s power-play goal at 5:42 of the second. A few minutes later, Olivier started shouting instructions down the ice.
After Olivier’s hit on Robertson, Sillinger landed a similarly big hit on Urho Vaakanainen a few feet away. The temperature rose immediately, and the Blue Jackets started to match the Rangers’ pace.
The Blue Jackets scored their own power-play goal at 15:20 of the second. Voronkov, on the doorstep, lunged forward to get his stick on a rebound off a Werenski shot to sweep it wide of Shesterkin to make it 1-1.
VORO’S TAPS IT IN FOR THE TIE! 🚨
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/WN6xU24uL8
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) November 16, 2025
Later in the second period, after Olivier and Rangers forward Sam Carrick traded hits and chops, they dropped the mitts.
Carrick landed some early, forcing Olivier to make a rare switch to throwing rights, but the fight ended when Olivier landed a right to the side of Carrick’s head.
“No. 24,” Evason said, referencing Olivier’s sweater number. “That got us going, right? Not necessarily the fight, but the hit.
“It gave us a real bump because, yeah, we didn’t have it. We were playing good structurally, but we just didn’t have that extra pop. Maybe things have caught up to us a little bit with the sickness and all that stuff. But I love the way we grinded.”
Both clubs played the third period with little risk, especially late in the period. It was clear in the final minutes that the teams were playing to get points at least. You expect that from a trip, but not so much the home club.
“It’s kind of human nature a little bit,” Werenski said. “You don’t want to be trading chances, you know. It’s human nature that you’re above the puck.
“You’re playing simple, you’re just getting pucks out, getting them in. Not that you talk about that, or anything, it’s just kind of how the game goes. You’re not trying to give up anything.”