Panarin ties Blue Jackets’ record with five assists

NEWARK, N.J. — Artemi Panarin gripped three pucks with one hand, two pucks with the other, and grinned for a photo in the dressing room.

That snapshot of a sniper celebrating his five primary assists framed a crazy 5-3 comeback win for the Blue Jackets on Friday night against the New Jersey Devils, the same team that three days earlier embarrassed them 4-1 at Nationwide Arena.

Yet Panarin’s franchiserecord tying five assists, matching Espen Knutsen’s feat on March 24, 2001, against the Flames, and five points (achieved three other times) were just one of several stunning footnotes for the Jackets.

Scott Harrington scored. Alexander Wennberg scored, and did so on …

wait for it … a power play. Lukas Sedlak scored. And the Jackets rallied from a 2-0 deficit after one period.

After two days of tongue-lashing from coach John Tortorella for a “disgusting” final two periods Tuesday, the Blue Jackets played a “lousy” opening period Friday, he said. Then, they flipped a switch and snapped a two-game skid.

“It feels great. We didn’t get the start we wanted — we were still kind of playing like we did last game — but we found our legs, we found our energy and played a really good last two periods,” said Zach Werenski, who notched his ninth goal, most among NHL defensemen. “It feels nice to get two points against a team that was just ahead of us.”

The Jackets lost their lead in the Metropolitan Division to the Devils on Tuesday and started Friday’s game in a four-way tie for second, one point behind the Devils.

Brian Boyle scored on a shot from the slot at 8:29

Tied franchise record for assists (five) and points (five) in a game

Ended his scoring slump and gave the Jackets their third power-play goal out of 43 chances

Scored his ninth goal New Jersey, Boyle 5 (Wood, Hayes), 8:29; 2. New Jersey, Johansson 4 (Noesen), 14:10.

3. Columbus, Dubois 5 (Panarin), 2:29; 4. Columbus, Sedlak 3 (Panarin), 5:44; 5. Columbus, Harrington 1 and Marcus Johansson grabbed a rebound off the end boards and scored on a wraparound past Sergei Bobrovsky’s left pad at 14:10.

But the Jackets roared back starting in the

Columbus 9-9-10—28; New Jersey 9-10-5—24.

Columbus 1 of 2; New Jersey 0 of 4. Columbus, Bobrovsky 15-7-1 (24 shots-21 saves); New Jersey, Schneider 11-6-3 (28-23). 16,514. 2:32. second, thanks to Panarin.

“Me and (Seth Jones) were joking on the bench at the end of the game how he came here and everyone said he’s a shooter,” Werenski said. “He can shoot the puck