James Reimer made 28 saves in place of scheduled starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who missed the game with an undisclosed injury. Luukkonen is slated to represent Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20.
“Don’t expect anything too long, like really day to day,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said of Luukkonen’s status. “I’m hopeful.”
Ivan Provorov had a goal and an assist, and Elvis Merzlikins made 18 saves for the Blue Jackets (26-21-7), who have lost two straight.
“We liked our third period a lot,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “We made a couple of uncharacteristic plays for us as of late and brought some pucks back in the neutral zone and fed into their forecheck and consequently gave up a couple of goals. But we played hard, despite a couple of situations like that. We pushed, we played hard, gave ourselves an opportunity and just come up a little short.”
The Blue Jackets played without their top defense pair of Zach Werenski and Dante Fabbro, each with an upper-body injury, as well as their leading goal-scorer, forward Kirill Marchenko, who is out indefinitely with a broken jaw.
“I think throughout the year, I think no matter what happens with this team, I think we go out there and try to do our best,” Provorov said. “We go out there to battle, play for each other. And today is the same thing. Obviously, don't want to see the guys get hurt. But when somebody gets hurt, it's just another man up.
“Everybody's got to step up and do the job. I think today we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in the second period, and it kind of cost us the game a little.”