Hurricanes 4, Blue Jackets 3 (OT)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Carolina Hurricanes lost their grip on a three-goal lead against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but escaped Nationwide Arena on Saturday with a 4-3 victory after center Jordan Staal scored in overtime.
Staal poked the puck around Blue Jackets left wing Brandon Saad in the Carolina end, skated the length of the ice and beat Blue Jackets rookie goaltender with a wrist shot at 2:45.
Center Andrej Nestrasil, right winger Kris Versteeg and defenseman John-Michael Liles also scored for the Hurricanes, while goaltender Cam Ward finished with 21 saves.
Right winger Cam Atkinson, center Alexander Wennberg and rookie right winger Josh Anderson scored for the Blue Jackets, while Joonas Korpisalo had 26 saves.
The win gives the Hurricanes a two-game weekend sweep of the Blue Jackets - Carolina won 4-1 at home on Friday - and gave them points seven of their last night games (5-2-2).
The Blue Jackets have lost six of their last eight games (2-5-1), including three in a row (0-2-1).
Carolina took a 1-0 lead on the power play at 10:09 of the first period. Center Elias Lindholm, who had two goals on Friday, fired a cross-zone feed that Nestrasil one-timed for his fifth goal of the season.
The Hurricanes threatened to run away with it in the second period.
At 1:27, Versteeg scored his sixth goal of the season off the rush. Versteeg was trying to dangle the puck in front of Korpisalo, but lost possession of the puck as he came out of the right circle.
No matter. The pick skidded innocently through Korpisalo's pads and into the net.
At 7:32, the lead grew to 3-0 when Liles - pinching deep off the rush - fired home a rebound over Korpisalo's extended right pad.
Columbus cut the deficit to 3-1 when Atkinson recorded the fourth short-handed goal of his career, scoring at 15:28 of the second period.
After that, the momentum seemed to gradually tilt toward the Blue Jackets, with a hard tilt in the third period.
Only 10 seconds after a power play expired, Wennberg split the Hurricanes defense for a clean shot at Ward. When his first shot was partially stopped, Wennberg reached behind Ward at net front to bury it, making it 3-2.
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, desperate to identify forward lines after the departure of Ryan Johansen in a trade earlier this week, put his No. 1 center between two rookies, left wing Kerby Rychel and Anderson.
It paid off at 11:54 of third, when Rychel made a soft pass across the goal mouth to Anderson for an easy goal, the first of his NHL career.
NOTES: The Blue Jackets will be without captain Nick Foligno for at least a week after he was hit by Carolina C Brad Malone early in the third period of Friday's game. Foligno was placed on injured reserve Saturday with what the club termed an "upper-body" injury. ... Malone avoided supplemental punishment from the NHL's department of player safety, which ruled that his left shoulder struck Foligno's right shoulder, not his head. ... The Blue Jackets recalled RW Kerby Rychel from Lake Erie of the American Hockey League on Saturday to take Foligno's spot in the lineup. Rychel requested a trade over the summer, and has spent most of this season in the AHL.