Wild-card chases in focus as Blue Jackets host Canucks

Two teams fighting for wild-card playoff spots in their respective conferences will meet when the Vancouver Canucks visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.

Vancouver (34-26-12, 80 points) defeated the New York Islanders 5-2 on Wednesday night for its second straight win and is in the thick of the Western Conference wild-card race.

Columbus (32-29-9, 73 points) is coming off a 4-3 shootout win against the Islanders on Monday night that ended a six-game losing streak (0-5-1). The Blue Jackets remain in a group of teams chasing the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Kiefer Sherwood had two goals and an assist for the Canucks against the Islanders. Drew O'Connor and Pius Suter each had two assists, and Thatcher Demko made 26 saves for the Canucks, who scored the final four goals of the game.

Vancouver is 2-1-1 through four games of a six-game road trip.

"It's kind of been a long trip, and I don't know if we found our legs," Quinn Hughes said of Vancouver's play early in the game. "We just knew it wasn't going to be one of those games for us. We knew we had to play smart. ... Every game is like a must win, so there's no foot off the gas here. We just have to reset mentally and physically."

Demko won his second straight game since his return from a lower-body injury that kept him out for over six weeks.

Vancouver has six games against teams currently occupying a playoff spot over its final 10 contests.

"These are all must-win games," Demko said. "There's not many left, so we're just doing what we can to stay in it here, finding different ways to win each night. We're going to keep pushing here until the end and see if we can squeeze a couple more out."

Adam Fantilli, Kirill Marchenko and Boone Jenner scored in the Blue Jackets' win against New York, and Elvis Merzlikins made 30 saves. Sean Monahan had two assists in his first game back after missing 28 games because of a wrist injury. Marchenko's goal was his first point in six games.

Columbus was outshot 17-6 in the first period and went back to the locker room down 2-0.

"The first period wasn't us at all, obviously," Jenner said. "For whatever reason, we weren't playing our game. We were turning pucks over, losing battles. We talked about it, us in this room, that all year, we haven't accepted that. We knew we had to be better."

In addition to getting Monahan back, defenseman Erik Gudbranson returned after missing 66 games with a shoulder injury.

"You add those two guys in your locker room, it's going to help you," Jenner said. "They've battled extremely hard, we've seen firsthand, to get back and come back at a crucial time of year."

Jenner tied the game with a short-handed goal, the ninth this season for the Blue Jackets.

Suter scored twice and the Canucks rallied from two goals down to beat the visiting Blue Jackets 5-2 on Dec. 6. Brock Boeser, Sherwood and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Vancouver.

--Field Level Media