As was discussed late on Friday and before the game Saturday night at Nationwide Arena, the NHL handed out no additional punishment to Brad Malone for his hit that injured captain Nick Foligno. The NHL deemed the hit to be “blindisde” but violated no rules. Safe to say the Jackets came out looking to even that out just a bit.
After some thunderous checks on the first few shifts, none other than Jared Boll would enter the fray. Just 2:15 into the game, Boll scrapped with Malone scoring the takedown and throwing a couple punches after that for good measure.
The Jackets struggled for much of the first period to put pucks on net and the ice began tilting in Carolina’s favor. At 9:10 of the first, Boone Jenner went to the box for concealing the puck.
On the ensuing power play, Carolina found the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. Noah Hanifin worked the puck along the wall to Korpisalo’s right. He fed the puck to Elias Lindholm below the dot. Lindholm then fired a cross-ice pass below Jack Johnson’s outstretched stick. Dubinsky was late in getting to the wide open Andrej Nestrasil, who fired the puck past Korisalo from the left faceoff circle.
The Hurricanes took the 1-0 lead into the break and carried a 10-5 shot advantage as well.
That momentum carried into the start of the 2nd period. Kris Versteeg opened up the scoring just 1:27 into the period. Versteeg came streaking into the zone and received a pass in the slot from Eric Staal. Dubinsky missed Versteeg and puck and the Canes forward walked in on Korpisalo and finished it off to make it 2-0 in Carolina’s favor.
Six minutes later, the Jackets lost a faceoff in their own zone. Korpisalo made a couple of nice saves, but John-Michael Liles cleaned up a rebound to make it 3-0. The boos ensued from the Nationwide Arena crowd.
At the 15:28 mark of the period, Cam Atkinson got the home team on the board. Cam was able to poke check the puck around Justin Faulk while the Hurricanes were on the power play. The speedy forward took the puck the length of the ice for a pseudo-shoot out attempt and scored on Cam Ward with his usual backhand to forehand move.
The Jackets had an early power play chance in the 3rd period, but could not get a shot on net. Just moments after the power play ended, David Savard made a nice pass out of the defensive zone to Brandon Saad. Saad came streaking in and flipped the puck to Alexander Wennberg on the slot. Wennberg was hooked as he came in on the rush towards Ward, but he stuck with the play and finished it off. The Hurricanes were holding onto a 3-2 lead.
Per usual, the forward lines were switched as the game went along and Josh Anderson and Kerby Rychel found themselves flanking Brandon Dubinsky. At 11:54 of the 3rd, Josh Anderson took a pass on the slot from Kerby Rychel to score his first career NHL goal. The puck had deflected off of a Hurricanes defender and Rychel grabbed it from there, skating towards Ward’s right. He then passed it back to the slot, setting up Anderson.
Off to overtime the teams went. At 2:45, Jordan Staal finished the game. The Jackets had been in the offensive zone, but Saad could not control the puck near the blue line. That sent the Hurricanes for a 2-on-1. Staal held the puck the hold way, showing pass, and then finally ripped it to the far side post and beat Korpisalo for the game winner.
Final 4-3 Hurricanes (overtime)
The Jackets are now a full nine points back of the Hurricanes, who occupy the 7th-place position in the Metropolitan Division. The OT loss means the CBJ are now 7-9-4 at home this season.
Obviously Columbus showed some burst late in the 2nd period and for much of the 3rd, but it was not enough. They were largely outplayed for the last six period against these Hurricanes.
The Blue Jackets will return to action on Tuesday at the Islanders.