Blue Jackets at Hurricanes
The Columbus Blue Jackets aim to extend their point streak to seven games and exact revenge from the Carolina Hurricanes for an early-season loss on Saturday when the two Metropolitan Division rivals meet at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. Columbus matched a season high in goals in its 7-3 romp over Florida on Thursday to improve to 4-0-2 in its last six games.
Columbus forwards Cam Atkinson and Pierre-Luc Dubois extended their respective goal-scoring streaks to a career high-tying three games on Thursday to remain tied with a team-leading nine tallies this season. While Atkinson is even with Artemi Panarin with five multi-point performances, Dubois notched his fourth and has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in his last 10 contests. Those three forwards, however, were held off the scoresheet in a 3-1 setback to Carolina on Oct. 5, with Sebastian Aho and Micheal Ferland doing the heavy lifting with a goal and an assist for the victors. Ferland scored his team-leading ninth goal in regulation on Monday and Aho tallied 1:16 into overtime in a 3-2 win over Chicago, improving the Hurricanes to 2-0-1 in their last three on the heels of a five-game winless skid (0-4-1).
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Columbus), FS Carolinas
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (11-6-2): Alexander Wennberg notched a pair of assists Thursday to boost his point total to five (one goal, four assists) in his last five games while fellow center Boone Jenner scored in the third period for his sixth point (one goal, five assists) in his past seven. Joonas Korpisalo pushed his career-high point streak to seven games (5-0-2) after making a season-high 40 saves on Thursday and could draw the start against Carolina with two-time Vezina Trophy recipient Sergei Bobrovsky nursing an illness. "The only job is to get the puck out of the net. I just have to make the saves," Korpisalo said.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (8-7-3): Teuvo Teravainen scored a goal on Monday to push his point streak to three games heading into a tilt versus Columbus, against which he set up Aho's second-period tally in the first encounter. Former Blue Jackets goaltender Curtis McElhinney turned aside 31 shots in that contest, but Scott Darling has started his team's last three games (2-0-1) and yielded just eight goals on 105 shots. The 29-year-old Darling owns a 1-0-2 record with a 1.30 goals-against average and scintillating .956 save percentage in four career appearances versus Columbus.
OVERTIME
1. Carolina is 0-for-10 on the power play in its last six encounters with Columbus.
2. Blue Jackets C Brandon Dubinsky, who scored in the first meeting with the Hurricanes, recorded his first multi-point performance of the season with a goal and an assist versus the Panthers.
3. The Hurricanes have scored at least one power-play goal in four straight games.