Emil Bemstrom scored with 25 seconds left in overtime, and the host Columbus Blue Jackets broke their eight-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the undermanned Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
Bemstrom put in his seventh of the season on a rebound off Zach Werenski’s shot from the left circle, beating sprawling goalie Marcus Hogberg for Columbus’ first win since Feb. 7. The Jackets had gone 0-3-5 since.
Nick Foligno scored a pair of goals, Stefan Matteau also tallied and Boone Jenner had two assists for Columbus, which won the season series 2-0-1.
Elvis Merzlikins made 16 saves on 18 shots before leaving in the second period following a collision. Joonas Korpisalo relieved — taking the ice for the first time since a 24-game absence — and finished the game with 14 saves on 15 shots.
Connor Brown notched two markers, Colin White also scored and Hogberg had 41 saves for the Senators.
Ottawa played with a depleted forward group after the day’s trade-deadline activity. Vladislav Namestnikov was dealt to Colorado in the morning’s first deal, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (New York Islanders) and Tyler Ennis (Edmonton) were traded away later.
The club acquired Matthew Peca from the Montreal Canadiens and called up Rudolfs Balcers from AHL affiliate Belleville. But both were delayed traveling to Columbus, and Ottawa started the game with 10 forwards.
Peca logged nine minutes of ice time in his Senators debut, and Balcers showed up in the second period but couldn’t play because his gear failed to arrive. Ottawa also lost Anthony Duclair due to injury.
Columbus scored at 4:10 of the first period when Pierre-Luc Dubois fired a pass to Foligno — sporting a pair of black eyes after receiving a visor-shattering shot Thursday by teammate Gustav Nyquist — and the captain buried it.
Peca joined his new teammates five minutes later. He ended his first shift just seconds before Brown tied the game by potting his second goal this season against Columbus at 10:48.
Ottawa’s power-play unit scored nine seconds into the first man advantage, when Brown flipped in his 13th at 9:55 of the second period for a 2-1 lead.
Merzlikins left at 11:16 after a hard crash with former teammate Duclair. Korpisalo, out since Dec. 29 with a torn meniscus, entered the fray, and Foligno tapped in a shot for his ninth goal at 12:32 to even the score at 2.
