Blue Jackets turn back Hurricanes in overtime on Seth Jones’ goal
The NHL saw fit to schedule the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets for four straight games midway through the season. Overkill, perhaps, but the schedule.
The first of the four was played Thursday at PNC Arena and was a typical Canes-Jackets game, with bodies colliding, open ice hard to find and the intensity level pretty high.
The game was so evenly played that it went to overtime, and Seth Jones’ second goal of the game, with 50.4 seconds left, won it for Columbus 3-2.
Jones’ winner came after goalie Joonas Korpisalo stopped a breakaway by the Canes’ Martin Necas and then a shot from the slot from Andrei Svechnikov. In the opening moments of the OT, Korpisalo gloved a shot by Jaccob Slavin, who slipped in front of the crease for a redirection of an Aho pass.
The Blue Jackets (12-12-7) then converted a two-on-one rush as Jones ripped a shot past Alex Nedeljkovic, who had a four-game winning streak end.
“It’s a good team and they’re going to grind you and they do it right,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You have to fight for everything you get and that’s what happened tonight. We know what we’re getting into. We just weren’t quite ready to dig in at the start of the game and then did it in spurts the rest of the way.
“It was a pretty even game after the first period and even overtime we had our chances. That’s how it goes.”
Sebastian Aho scored twice for the Hurricanes (20-7-2), his 12th and 13th of the season, and Dougie Hamilton now has a 10-game point streak, one shy of the franchise record for defensemen set by Mark Howe in 1980.
Jones scored the only goal of the first period, and the Blue Jackets’ Kevin Stenlund tied the score for Columbus in the second.
The Canes, beaten Tuesday in Detroit, had an indifferent first period, falling behind 1-0 as Jones scored off a rebound for the Blue Jackets and Columbus pressured Nedeljkovic much of the period. As Brind’Amour put it, “We were late to everything.”
“We just gave it too easy to them, the first period,” Aho said. “We got it back. It’s always nice to see the team can dig in and come back.”
The Canes were a different team in the second, tying the score 51 seconds into the period on Aho’s first goal and moving in front 2-1 as Aho scored on the power play off a Necas’ pass.
The Canes were jumping and nearly made if 3-1 as forward Warren Foegele, looking at an open net, was stymied on a shot by a scrambling Korpisalo, who finished with 25 saves.
But a penalty on the Canes’ Brett Pesce stalled Carolina’s momentum late in the second. Columbus didn’t score on the power play but Stenlund, unchecked for a shot, tied it a few seconds after the power play expired.
“We can’t be negative. We can’t let this creep in,” Aho said of losing the past two games. “We have to have our heads up and go back to work.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 6:34 PM.
