COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella has been experimenting with line combinations all season. He's found some juice lately in the top line of Josh Anderson, Artemi Panarin and rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Anderson scored late in the third period and added two assists in the Blue Jackets' 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night in a scrappy, penalty-filled game.
Panarin had a goal and two assists, and Dubois added a pair of assists for the Metropolitan Division-leading Blue Jackets, who have won eight of nine. Joonas Korpisalo, playing in place of Sergei Bobrovsky on the first night of a back-to-back, had 25 saves.
"It's sustaining us here a little bit, where we have some struggles with some other guys," Tortorella said of the Panarin-Dubois-Anderson combination. "The line has been really good. I though (Panarin) was much stronger on the puck tonight, Dubois continues to impress as far as his strength on the puck.
"I can't find a consistent line after (Dubois') line," he said.
Anderson got his team-high 10th goal with just under five minutes left to make it 3-2, firing the puck in off the left shoulder of goalie John Gibson. Nick Foligno added an empty net-goal with 29 seconds left.
Cam Fowler and Kevin Roy scored, and Gibson had 27 saves for the Ducks, who have dropped five of six.
"We found a way," Foligno said. "It wasn't the prettiest game."
Brandon Dubinsky got it going for the Blue Jackets when he launched a wrist shot from the top of the right circle 7:02 into the game.
Fowler made it 1-1 about two minutes later when he carried the puck across the blue line, pulled up and beat Korpisalo on his glove side with a slap shot.
Roy put the Ducks up with his third goal of the season 2:32 into the second with a player from each team sitting in the penalty box. Roy got a breakaway on a nice stretch pass from newcomer Adam Henrique, charged Korpisalo and pushed it between the goalie's pads.
Henrique and forward Joseph Blandisi made their debut for the Ducks after being acquired in a trade with New Jersey on Thursday for
The Blue Jackets tied the game again — and finally an elusive power-play goal — 10:54 into the second when Dubois set up Panarin , who found some space and snapped it past Gibson from just inside the left circle. Columbus, with the worst power-play percentage in the league, was 1 for 29 with a man advantage in the last 12 games before Friday.
The Jackets were 1 of 7 on power-play chances Friday, and the Ducks were 0 for 4.
"We've got to learn you can't give the opposition seven times to practice their power play," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle. "So they score a power-play goal to get themselves even with us, and we don't get that
NOTES: Foligno and Gibson both were penalized near the end of the second period when Foligno flattened the goalie punches after a scuffle in the crease. ... Anaheim's top scorer, Rickard Rakell, missed his fourth consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ... Columbus D Scott Harrington played in just his fourth game of the season thanks to injuries to Ryan Murray and Matt Calvert. Calvert missed his 12th game, but he might play Saturday at Washington. Murray missed his second straight game. ... Anaheim D Brandon Montour returned after missing a game with a hyperextended elbow. He had a team-high five shots Friday.
UP NEXT
Anaheim: Plays at Nashville on Saturday night.
Columbus: Plays at Washington on Saturday night.
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Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press