COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Boston Bruins lost Zdeno Chara, but Joe Corvo found his scoring touch.

Corvo scored his first two goals of the season and Milan Lucic had three assists to lead the Bruins to a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Corvo said. “I can’t remember the last time I went 20-some odd games without scoring, especially on a new team. It’s nice to get that one and then add another one. It was pretty important.”

Nathan Horton, Chris Kelly and Chara, who left after two periods with an undisclosed lower-body injury, also scored for the Bruins.

Coach Claude Julien said he was unsure of the nature of his 6-foot-9 defenseman’s injury.

“I haven’t found out if it’s minor or major or anything yet. I haven’t seen him yet,” Julien said. “It’s hard to comment on that until I know the severity of it.”

The Bruins looked lethargic early, then bounced back from a rare two-game losing skid after gaining points in 15 games in a row.

“We came out in the third tied 3-3. Without (Chara), we won it,” Julien said. “Credit the team for that effort. We’ve had five games in eight nights. The group is a little tired. We just had to battle through it.”

The Blue Jackets, who blew a two-goal lead for the second game in a row, picked up goals from Rick Nash, Jeff Carter and R.J. Umberger.

Tim Thomas was the Bruins’ goaltender for the first two periods but was replaced by Tuukka Rask. Julien said he and his staff didn’t think Thomas looked comfortable between the pipes.

“A couple of goals went through him,” he said. “It was a gut feeling from the coaches’ perspective.”

Rask stopped all 11 shots he faced.

“I had the intermission time to think about it,” said Rask. “If you get shots and you kind of get your sweat going and you feel good about yourself, it helps.”

Down 2-0 midway through the first period, the Bruins scored the next three goals. After Umberger tied it later in the second, Corvo’s second goal, on a power play 6:44 into the third period, gave Boston the lead for good. The Bruins also had a man advantage in the final minute when Kelly added some insurance.

The Blue Jackets, who blew a two-goal lead with 1:30 left Thursday night before losing in overtime, followed that script again in the opening period.

They dominated early and took a 2-0 lead on goals by Nash and Carter.

But the Bruins needed just 45 seconds to even the score late in the first. Corvo’s hard shot from the right point eluded Curtis Sanford, and Horton’s wrister from the high slot made it 2-2.

 

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