Hartnell's heroics help Blue Jackets edge Hurricanes
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An impressive play by a pair of veterans resulted in the Columbus Blue Jackets skating to a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.
Scott Hartnell scored the game-winning goal after receiving a tape-to-tape pass from linemate Sam Gagner near the midway point of the third period.
Prior to Hartnell's second goal of the night, the first period was, inversely, just that; a period of firsts.
The Blue Jackets recalled Markus Hannikainen from Cleveland on Friday and it took just 4:49 of the first period for the first dividend of that move to pay off. The left winger slid a rebound past Carolina goaltender Michael Leighton for his first NHL career goal.
Later in the opening period, Hartnell blasted a slap shot into the net from just inside the blue line. Dalton Prout and Scott Harrington were credited with assists on Hartnell's tally, the first points of the 2016-17 campaign for each of them.
The Blue Jackets' initial goal came after Columbus had spotted the Hurricanes an 8-1 shot advantage with Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky stonewalling each of those attempts.
The Hurricanes controlled the action in the second period, limiting Columbus to one shot on goal until 17:18 had elapsed. This time, however, their efforts were rewarded when Sebastian Aho netted a power-play goal from the right faceoff circle, beating Borbrovsky's effort to slide back across the crease after a previous Carolina shot.
Carolina's defenseman Justin Faulk earned his ninth goal of the season just over six minutes later, launching the puck in the top right corner of the net during a two-on-one opportunity.
The Blue Jackets' defense stood tall in the waning minutes of the third period to preserve the victory killing off a Carolina power play that began at the 16:16 mark.
NOTES: The Blue Jackets recalled LW Markus Hannikainen from Cleveland on Friday morning. ... Since having their franchise record 16-game win streak snapped on Jan. 5, Columbus has not won back-to-back games and have been shut out twice in their past eight games. ... The Blue Jackets had gone 17-3-1 in their last 20 games in Nationwide Arena. ... Carolina recalled G Michael Leighton from the Charlotte Checkers on Thursday and reassigned G Alex Nedeljkovic. Nedeljkovic, on Ohio native, made his NHL debut against Columbus earlier in the week when the teams faced off on Tuesday. ... After Carolina suffered a 7-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Friday night, Hurricanes coach Bill Peters talked about using the experience as a lesson moving forward. ... Saturday's game was the beginning of the Hurricanes players' Dads trip. ... Blue Jackets LW Matt Calvert, D David Savard and Marcus Nutivaara were scratched. The Hurricanes scratched D Noah Hanifin, D Matt Tennyson and LW Teuvo Teravainen. ... Carolina G Eddie Lack and LW Bryan Bickell were listed on the injury report as was Blue Jackets RW David Clarkson.