The Blue Jackets improved to 4-2 in the preseason with a solid 3-1 win in St. Louis on Tuesday night.

Play in a paragraph

Columbus put on an excellent defensive performance against a strong Blues lineup and took the win. St. Louis scored the lead early in the second period, but the Blue Jackets scored twice in the final period to take the lead and then scored the scoreless goal in the third period to end things.

CBJ figureheads

• Yegor Chinakhov and Gavin Brindley each scored their first goals of the preseason.

• Mathieu Olivier scored his fourth unanswered goal in pre-season.

• Adam Fantilli had two assists.

• Jet Greaves played the entire game in net and stopped 22 of 23 shots.

How it happened

After 20 minutes, neither team came onto the pitch, but there were chances for both sides. The line of Fantilli, Yegor Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov provided the best looks for Columbus, with Blues goalie Joel Hofer fending off a few hard wrist shots from Chinakhov during the frame. On the other hand, Greaves also had to be sharp and he had some luck when Zack Bolduc hit the post towards the end of the quarter.

Things opened up a bit in the second period, with the Jackets taking a 2-1 lead at midfield while also holding a 12-6 advantage in shots on goal in the period. The teams traded a power-play scoreline in the first eight minutes as St. Louis scored 3:21 into the game when Justin Faulk used some good passing to fire a slap shot past Greaves, but the Jackets tied it at 7:43 Chinakhov calmly shot down the rebound from a Fantilli shot. Brindley then broke the tie with 6:18 left when he scored right after a faceoff win from Luca Del Bel Belluz.

In the third period, the Blue Jackets stifled defensively, allowing St. Louis to score just nine shot attempts in 16 minutes of 5-on-5 play. Columbus also withstood a 6-on-5 game from the Blues in the final 90 seconds and provided the icing on the cake in the final second when Olivier pushed the puck into an empty net.

Remarkable

Olivier and Fantilli are now tied with four NHL goals in the preseason. … Columbus finished the game with a 35-23 advantage in shots on goal, with Chinakhov and Trey Fix-Wolansky leading the way with six shots on goal each. … Columbus scored on its only power-play opportunity while St. Louis was 1-3. … A night after scoring against Washington, Del Bel Belluz added an assist tonight. … Per Natural Stat Trick, the Blue Jackets had a 16-4 advantage in shots on goal with defenseman Denton Mateychuk on the ice and a 14-6 advantage with his partner David Jiricek on the ice.

Roster report

Here is the lineup the Blue Jackets used for the contest. It was a mix of NHLers and players looking to make an impact and get noticed in the regular season opener in just nine days.

Next

Columbus has Wednesday off and returns to the ice on Thursday at home against Pittsburgh in its final preseason home game of the year. The faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m