Bruins edge Blue Jackets, who fail to gain in Metropolitan race

COLUMBUS -- Mark Kastelic scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves for the Boston Bruins, who pushed the Columbus Blue Jackets to the brink of elimination from Stanley Cup Playoff contention with a 3-2 win at Nationwide Arena on Sunday.

Kastelic made it 3-2 at 10:22 of the third period with a shot from low in the left circle to the upper right corner during a delayed penalty.

He also had an assist, Sean Kuraly had a goal and two assists against his former team, and Henri Jokiharju had a goal and an assist for the Bruins (44-27-10), who were 0-3-2 in their previous five games. James Hagens, the No. 7 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, had an assist in his NHL debut.

Boston has clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and is two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators for the first wild card in the Eastern Conference with one game left. The Senators have a game in hand.

The Bruins rested forwards Viktor Arvidsson, Tanner Jeannot and Pavel Zacha, and defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy. 

“Great win first of all, with a few guys out,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “The guys worked extremely hard like we’ve done all year long. So, that was not really a surprise, and I'm also glad some guys got rewarded today like (Kastelic).”

Mason Marchment and Adam Fantilli scored, and Jet Greaves made 19 saves for the Blue Jackets (40-29-12), who are 3-8-1 in the past 11 games.

The Blue Jackets trail the Philadelphia Flyers by two points for third place in the Metropolitan Division with one game remaining, one fewer than the Flyers but Columbus holds the tiebreaker. The Washington Capitals are one point behind the Flyers and finish the regular season at Columbus on Tuesday.

Columbus will be eliminated if the Flyers get a point against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.

“We're all very, very disappointed in how it went tonight,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “The guys are heartbroken, we're heartbroken, and now we've lost total control of what's going to happen. 

“So, there's nothing we can do now, and we'll just have to sit back and see what happens tomorrow night with Philly.”

Marchment made it 1-0 at 3:59 of the first period. He was parked to the right of the net to redirect a shot from the left point by Dante Fabbro.

Kuraly scored at 10:31 to make it 1-1 off a double tip. Jokiharju’s shot was touched first by Kastelic before Kuraly’s deflection. Kuraly played the previous four seasons for the hometown Blue Jackets.

“There's a lot of really good teammates, good players, good guys in that (Blue Jackets) room that I have a ton of respect for,” he said. “They play hard and you just play hard and it feels good to be on the side that comes out on top. There's no doubt about that.”

Jokiharju made it 2-1 at 19:41 of the second period from the right dot after Kuraly won a puck battle below the goal line. Hagens, a 19-year-old forward, had the secondary assist.

“It was super cool,” Hagens said. “It was a really cool building to be able to get that win. It was special.”

Sturm used him in the final minutes while trying to protect the lead.

“It feels great,” Hagens said. “Just you go out there and you make sure you don't get scored on.”

Fantilli tied it 2-2 at 1:27 of the third period with a breakaway snap shot after a long pass by Danton Heinen but the Bruins responded with the winning goal.

“I think we had to maybe up our urgency a little bit,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “I thought in the third we had a lot of grade-A chances to either take the lead or tie it back up. We missed on a few of them. I think their so-called fourth line had all three goals for them. So, we have to do a better job of limiting that, obviously, when a line like that's going.

“But I don't really know how it got away from us. I feel like we stuck to our game plan for a lot of it, but I just feel like the intensity needed to go up.”