COLUMBUS, Ohio — Left winger Scott Hartnell had two goals and defenseman Kevin Connauton had one goal and two assists, leading the Columbus Blue Jackets to an easy 6-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday in Nationwide Arena.
The Blue Jackets pulled away from a 1-1 score with a four-goal second period.
Left winger Nick Foligno, left winger Matt Calvert and left winger Jeremy Morin also scored for the Blue Jackets, who improved to 9-1-1 in December.
Goaltender Curtis McElhinney, subbing for ill starter Sergei Boborvsky, had 25 saves for his first win since Nov. 14.
The Bruins got goals from center Patrice Bergeron and right winger Craig Cunningham.
Boston goaltender Niklas Svedberg was pulled at 6:32 of the second period after Connauton’s goal made it 3-1. He stopped 12 of 15 shots before being replaced by Tuukka Rask.
The Blue Jackets managed to make the much-anticipated bout between Columbus defenseman Dalton Prout and Bruins left winger Milan Lucic an afterthought. Lucic had fumed and vowed revenge ever since a Nov. 21 bout with Prout that ended with one punch — Prout’s heavy right to the chin of Lucic, which buckled his knees and sent him spilling to the ice.
Six weeks later, after much back-and-forth in the media, the rematch finally happened.
Prout and Lucic fought at 2:59 of the second period, a heavyweight bout that Lucic won on decision. But both players landed heavy, flush punches.
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead at 8:11 of the first when Hartnell scored off a rebound after a Connauton shot.
The Bruins responded only 20 seconds later when Bergeron found space low in the slot and buried a wrister to make it 1-1.
Hartnell, who had missed five games with a broken finger, redirected a slap shot by defenseman James Wisneiwski into the net only 51 seconds into the second for a 2-1 lead.
The Blue Jackets pushed the lead to 3-1 — and chased Svedberg — when Connauton floated a wrister in through a screen from the blue line. Connauton, claimed on waivers last month, had his first career three-point game.
The lead grew to 4-1 at 9:26 of the second when Foligno scored a power-play goal, his 17th goal of the season.
The Bruins pulled to 4-2 at 16:28 when Cunningham redirected a puck through traffic, but the Blue Jackets got the goal back with only 51 seconds left in the second when Calvert scored off a Bruins turnover.
It was the Blue Jackets’ first four-goal period since Jan. 11, 2014, at Winnipeg.
They weren’t done yet, either. At 7:35 of the third, Morin scored on a wrister through traffic to push the score to 6-2. It was Morin’s first goal of the season and his first as a Blue Jacket.
Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson and center Brandon Dubinsky each had two assists.
NOTES: Blue Jackets LW Scott Hartnell was activated from Injured Reserve after missing five games because of a broken right index finger. He had been out since Dec. 11. … Bruins D Adam McQuaid, out since Nov. 18 because of a broken right thumb, could return within the next week, coach Claude Julien said. … The Blue Jackets recalled G Anton Forsberg from minor-league Springfield to serve as a back-up to G Curtis McElhinney as long as G Sergei Bobrovsky is out with an illness. … Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards entered the game with 99 victories as Columbus coach.