Conor Garland gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 19:01. Rangers defenseman Matthew Robertson tipped Garland’s shot into the air before it went in off the face of his defense partner, Braden Schneider.
Zibanejad evened it 2-2 at 4:44 with a snap shot on a rush from above the left circle that went in off Greaves’ glove.
“Tough opponent, obviously,” Zibanejad said. “Coming in here after playing yesterday, we knew it was going to be tough. But I feel like we talked about getting a response. … A bit better today than yesterday, but not good enough to beat this team, unfortunately.”
Jenner answered 2:20 later, putting Columbus ahead 3-2 at 7:04 by following his own shot and tapping in the rebound.
Fantilli made it 4-2 on a power play at 15:25, redirecting a point shot from Werenski past Shesterkin.
“We’re definitely not going to get overconfident,” Werenski said. “We’re a long way from where we want to be. That’s with an ‘X’ next to our name. … We do have a great team in here and we are aware of that.”
Lafreniere cut it to 4-3 with a power-play goal 50 seconds into the third period, jumping in front of Greaves to tip a shot from Adam Fox.
“Our special teams could’ve done a better job, for sure,” Fox said. “We got the goal, but didn’t get too much momentum from our power play.”
Damon Severson extended the lead to 5-3 at 6:12 by chipping in a rebound off a shot from Cole Sillinger.
Fantilli scored an empty-net goal at 17:06 for the 6-3 final.
“Not every game is going to be perfect,” Fantilli said. “(Bowness) said, ‘Not every game’s going to be Picasso.’ To be able to find wins like that is huge.”
NOTES: Fantilli has 21 goals after scoring 31 last season. He is the third Blue Jackets player with multiple 20-goal seasons before his 22nd birthday. Rick Nash and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had two. … Werenski has 72 points (20 goals, 52 assists) in 61 games, reaching 70 points in a second NHL season to tie Artemi Panarin for the most in Blue Jackets history. He had his third three-assist game this season, behind Panarin (four in 2017-18 and 2018-19) and Sean Monahan (four in 2024-25) for the most in a season by a Blue Jackets player. … The Rangers were 1-for-6 on the power play. They’ve scored once on eight chances in their past two games.