Eriksson lifts Bruins over Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Loui Eriksson, in his 700th NHL game, scored 33 seconds into overtime and the Boston Bruins defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.
Eriksson converted a pass from defenseman Torey Krug with an easy tap-in for his 20th goal this season.
"He's going to the net," Krug said. "When you do that obviously you have a chance to score goals. He's a skilled player who crashes the net. Maybe some other guys should take a look at that and learn from it."

Boston (31-20-6) has won five of its past seven games (5-2-0), and is 3-1-0 through four of a season-long six-game road trip, which continues Thursday against the Nashville Predators.
Patrice Bergeron, the Bruins' leading scorer, returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury and defenseman Adam McQuaid returned after missing 18 games with an upper-body injury.

Bergeron scored in the first period and Brad Marchand had his seven-game goal streak ended.
Goaltender Tuukka Rask made 28 saves to outduel his Finnish counterpart, rookie Joonas Korpisalo, who also had 28 saves.
"He was my biggest idol growing up," Korpisalo said. "It was really cool playing against him. I really liked his style. I tried to copy it when I was back (in Finland) two, three years ago."
Rask allowed five goals on 24 shots in 31:01 of ice time in a 6-5 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, but was sharp against the Blue Jackets. He allowed a goal on a penalty shot from Alex Wennberg 9:54 into the first period, but stopped Columbus' final 24 shots.
"It was one of those games I saw the puck and the guys were taking care of the rebounds," Rask said. "We kept them on the outside for the most part. Defensively we were pretty good but we weren't closing on them sometimes as much as we liked to."

Columbus (23-28-7) completes a five-game homestand Friday against the Buffalo Sabres.
Wennberg scored on the first penalty shot of his career, and Columbus' first this season, to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead. He skated in, slowed down then roofed a backhander for his sixth goal this season.
Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara was forced to hook Wennberg after Scott Hartnell's pass in the neutral zone created a partial breakaway.
Bergeron scored unassisted at 14:28 to tie the game at 1-1. Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones tried to chip the puck out of the zone, but Bergeron gloved it and fired a shot under the right arm of Korpisalo.
"It was a tough game to gauge," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "There were a lot of battles long the walls.

"The first period we were decent. The second period they won too many battles for my liking. Even in the offensive zone we seemed to get one chance and we were one and done and they'd come back at us."
Rask was stellar, particularly when the Bruins struggled on the power play; Boston finished the game 0-for-4 with a man-advantage. He stopped a Brandon Saad shorthanded breakaway and preserved the 1-1 tie into the second period.
"Those two shorthanded breakaways were our own doing," Julien said. "We need to be better in those areas. He bailed us out. I'm really happy the way we played but just as upset as far as giving them a free one."
That was it for the scoring until Eriksson's overtime game-winner.

Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said the goal spoiled another otherwise solid performance. He cited Wennberg and Jones for missing coverage on Eriksson's goal.
"That's a simple three-man entering our zone," Tortorella said. "All you have to do is find your man. [Jones] needs to step up on, I forget who the player is. Wennberg needs to get the wide guy and it's solved. That's all. They get nothing out of it."
Columbus is 4-0-2 in its past six games, playing against some of the league's better teams.
"It's encouraging," Blue Jackets forward Gregory Campbell said. "We hung in there with a really good team, a desperate team. We've been picking up points and doing a lot of good things. We wanted that second point."