Columbus Blue Jackets left-wing Brandon Saad (20) cuts back to make a pass around Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner (51) in the second period at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016.Dan Hamilton
Rookie Joonas Korpisalo made 41 saves as the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets snapped a four-game losing skid with a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
Korpisalo, 21, entered with just one win in six starts this season and was carrying a 3.69 goals-against average and .882 save percentage.
Boone Jenner, Alexander Wennberg and Brandon Dubinsky scored for the Blue Jackets (16-25-4).
Brad Boyes scored for the Maple Leafs (16-18-7), who have just two goals in their past three outings – all losses.
Toronto's James Reimer stopped 19 of 21 shots in defeat.
Nazem Kadri had Toronto's first good opportunity to score while on the power play, but wasn't able to beat Korpisalo on the blocker side from the slot early in the game.
Columbus opened the scoring when Jenner tipped a Seth Jones point shot from the high slot past Reimer at 15 minutes 8 seconds in the first period.
Rene Bourque had a great chance to double his club's lead before the first ended, but was turned away on a breakaway by a sprawling Reimer.
Toronto held the lead in shots 6-0 to start the game before William Karlsson put the first one on net for Columbus at 7:03. The Maple Leafs took a 10-8 shot advantage into the first intermission and were up 25-17 after 40 minutes.
The action picked up in the second after a slow opening period and Korpisalo was forced to make two big saves midway through – first on a point shot from Dion Phaneuf that took a deflection, and then another on Peter Holland on a one-timer from between the face-off dots.
Columbus made it 2-0 late in the period when Toronto couldn't get the puck out of its own end and Scott Hartnell took control of it behind the Leafs net. Reimer stopped Justin Falk's point shot but couldn't corral the rebound and Wennberg was able to put it home on the backhand at 16:17.
Boyes put Toronto on the board with 2:27 to play in the third, with Reimer on the bench for a sixth attacker, but Dubinsky added an empty netter in the final seconds to seal the two points.