Tag Archives: Elvis Merzlikins

Cam Johnson recalled to taxi squad

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have made a few roster moves with their goaltenders.

An injury to Elvis Merzlikins has resulted in the Columbus Blue Jackets making a couple of moves. Moves that include Cam Johnson being recalled from the Cleveland Monsters and being placed on the taxi squad.

Cam Johnson was assigned to the Monsters earlier in the week as part of a few moves made with goaltenders. Matiss Kivlenieks has now gone from the Monsters, to the taxi squad, to the Blue Jackets active roster. Kivlenieks will back up Joonas Korpisalo while Johnson will be the next in line should there be another injury.

Matiss Kivlenieks assigned to Monsters

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have assigned goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks to the Cleveland Monsters.

Matiss Kivlenieks was the odd man out in Columbus due to the return of Elvis Merzlikins. As a result the Blue Jackets announced Sunday morning that they have assigned Kivlenieks to the Cleveland Monsters.

Matiss Kivlenieks returns to Cleveland after his latest stint with Columbus. Kivlenieks has been the injury replacement for two different goaltenders. At first it was Joonas Korpisalo, then it was Elvis Merzlikins. With both healthy, Kivlenieks can return to a Monsters team in need of some good goaltending.

Cleveland is coming off two straight losses to Laval Rocket in which they allowed five goals in both games. Whether it was Veini Vehvilainen or Brad Thiessen, they had a hard time keeping Laval off the scoreboard. With Kivlenieks returning to Cleveland it should take Thiessen out of the rotation for the time being.

Kivlenieks has appeared in 19 games for the Cleveland Monsters this season. The 23-year old goaltender has a save-percentage of .904 and GAA of 2.97. Kivlenieks performed at a similar level up with Columbus with a save percentage of .898 and a GAA of 2.95 in six games.

Cleveland will head to Charlotte to take on the Checkers Tuesday at 7:00 P.M.

Blue Jackets recall Matiss Kivlenieks

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are bringing back goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks on an emergency recall after the injury to Elvis Merzlikins.

Matiss Kivlenieks’ stay with the Cleveland Monsters was quite brief. In fact, it did not include appearing in a a game before being an emergency recall by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Elvis Merzlikins suffered an injury during Monday’s 4-3 overtime win over Ottawa. 

Former Blue Jacket Anthony Duclair crashed into Merzlikins causing the injury.

Joonas Korpisalo came in for Merzlikins and finished the game.

Kivlenieks appeared in three games (two starts) in his most recent stint with the Blue Jackets. Unfortunately Columbus lost all three games he appeared in. 

Columbus was just one injury away from finding themselves in the same situation as the Carolina Hurricanes the other night. Carolina had to go with their emergency backup goalie David Ayres. This was due to injuries to their starter and regular backup. Ayres was able to be a temporary fill-in and came away with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. While this is a good story, it is certainly understandable why Columbus does not want go down that same path. 

As long as the Blue Jacket are able to avoid the injury bug yet again they should be fine. This is much easier said than done because just about anyone and everyone has been injured in Columbus this season.

The Blue Jackets take on the Wild Tuesday in Minnesota at 8:00 P.M.