The Blue Jackets snuff out the Maple Leafs

Twenty-ninth place lights up Columbus

Twenty-ninth against tenth

The Columbus Blue Jackets came into qualification night with a 29th-place finish from last season and a sore memory: a year earlier, the Boston Bruins had snuffed their candle on this same first night. The Toronto Maple Leafs finished 10th a season ago and reached the quarterfinals of the last Gauntlet before the Buffalo Sabres stopped them. One game at Nationwide Arena would settle it. The loser's flame went dark before the tournament had properly begun.

Fifty-two seconds, two goals

James van Riemsdyk struck first at 5:29 of the first with a backhand. Justin Danforth fired a wrist shot 0:52 later. Then Mathieu Olivier snapped home the third at 12:42, the goal that stood as the winner. Sean Monahan's snap shot in the second made it four, and Olivier's wrist shot, set up by Zachary Aston-Reese and Danforth, made it five.

Matthew Knies finally beat Daniil Tarasov at 18:59 of the second. Kirill Marchenko answered with a snap shot in the third, and Nick Robertson's backhand at 13:03 came too late to matter. Dennis Hildeby made 32 saves on 38 shots for Toronto. Tarasov stopped 26 of 28.

A Toronto candle goes cold

The Maple Leafs' flame went out on night one. The Blue Jackets, the team that went out first a year ago, burn on as one of 25 candles still lit.