Blue Jackets stay third in Metropolitan

COLUMBUS-- The Columbus Blue Jackets will finish third in the Metropolitan Division after a 5-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
Columbus (49-23-8) is five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins with two games left. Pittsburgh defeated the New Jersey Devils 7-4 and will have home-ice advantage against the Blue Jackets in their Eastern Conference First Round playoff series.
"Home ice, the advantage is in Game 7," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "I like going on the road. I think there's a lot of pressure on the home team those first couple of games."

WATCH: All Jets vs. Blue Jackets highlights
Brandon Saad scored twice, and Nick Foligno scored for Columbus, which has lost five in a row. Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves.
"No time to get down," Tortorella said. "We've just got to keep on banging away here, hopefully get some results in the next couple of games and get going with the real stuff."
Winnipeg goaltender Eric Comrie made 35 saves to win his NHL debut.

Jacob Trouba scored two power-play goals, Bryan Little had a goal and three assists, Mathieu Perreault had a goal and two assists, and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets (39-35-7), who have won six straight.
"It's one of those games where a lot of our chances we're going in for us," Little said.
Trouba put Winnipeg ahead 4-3 at 4:06 of the third period with his eighth goal of the season. Little's 21st at 9:35 made it 5-3. Boone Jenner scored with 6:00 remaining to make it 5-4 with his 17th goal.
The Blue Jackets led 1-0 after Foligno scored his 26th goal at 6:58 of the first period. Trouba made it 1-1 with 6:06 left on a power-play goal with 20 seconds remaining in a double-minor for high-sticking to Scott Harrington.
Scheifele gave the Jets a 2-1 lead on his 32nd goal with 4:35 left.
Perreault scored his 13th at 3:49 of the second period for a 3-1 lead. Saad made it 3-2 at 7:12 and then put in his rebound at 12:35 for his 24th to tie the score 3-3.

Goal of the game

Trouba went down to one knee to get in position to one-time a pass from Little.

Save of the game

Comrie stopped Saad at the goal mouth with five seconds left in the first period.

Unsung performance of the game

Jets center Jack Roslovic became the first Columbus-born player to reach the NHL.
In front of more than 100 family members and friends, he played 8:24 on 14 shifts and was a minus-1 with one shot on goal. He also had a block and was 1-for-6 on faceoffs.
"The dream was to play in the NHL and to do it in this fashion was special," the 20-year-old said.

Highlight of the game

Perreault moved around Columbus defenseman Seth Jones before scoring.

They said it

"That was really exciting. I was happy to get in there. The team did really good job keeping everything to the outside. That really helped a lot." -- Jets goaltender Eric Comrie, 21, on his NHL debut
"We're all a little bit antsy. You can't call these games meaningless, but for us it's making sure we're sharp going into the real fun and we're all on board next week." -- Blue Jackets forward Brandon Saad on looking ahead to the Stanley Cup Playoffs
"We don't like losing. We're not used to it in here and that's something we're going to fix real quick here." -- Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno

Need to know

The playoffs begin April 12. … Wheeler has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in a seven-game point streak and 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in his past 12 games. … Scheifele has 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in his past 20 games. … Perreault has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in his past 11 games. … Little has seven assists in his past three games. … The Blue Jackets scored more than two goals for the second time in nine games. They didn't have a power play. The Jets were 2-for-3.

What's next

Jets: Host the Nashville Predators on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, FS-TN, NHL.TV
Blue Jackets: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET; CSN-PH, FS-O, NHL.TV)