What Happened
The first big stop of the game was made by Merzlikins, who acrobatically denied a breakaway by the Rangers' Lewis Zerter-Gossage about five minutes into the game.
Columbus had some early chances as well before New York got the goal scoring started at 14:40. Brett Kemp fired from a sharp angle low on the left and the puck went in off Merzlikins' body.
But Columbus answered with three goals in the last 3:31 of the period. First, Texier scored a tap-in, as Korostelev fed him on a 2-on-1 and he easily slid it past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, who spent last year in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg.
It was 2-1 just 54 seconds later, as Matt Bergeron fed free-agent invitee Sokolov speeding in on the right side after a Rangers turnover, and Sokolov did the rest by beating Shesterkin far side from the circle.
Fortier completed the scoring outburst in the period with just 18.0 seconds left on a similar play, as the CBJ signee came in on a 2-on-1 after a shot block by Korostelev and fired short side past the Rangers goalie.
The goals came fast and furious for Fix-Wolansky early in the second as he scored twice in the opening 1:35 to make it 5-1. First, on a bit of a broken play, he found the puck alone in front and buried a shot quickly past the helpless Shesterkin just 17 seconds into the period. Then he beat the NYR goalie over the glove on a breakaway at 1:35.
Columbus made it 6-1 on the power play at 11:14, as Korostelev intercepted a clearing attempt, skated in alone and scored. And the score stayed that way thanks to a spectacular save by Merzlikins with 1:54 left in the period, as a nice passing play left Patrick Newell wide open in the slot but the CBJ goalie made a lunging glove save to deny the Rangers forward.
New York drew one back in the third period as Kemp beat Merzlikins to the glove 4:03 into the third, but the CBJ goalie responded with a big stop on Anthony Salinitri later to finish off the win.
