One night after seeing a six-game winning streak end at Montreal, Columbus returned home to the friendly confines of Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night and claimed a 3-2 win in a shootout vs. Metropolitan Division rival Carolina.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | SO | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HURRICANES | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| BLUE JACKETS | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
IN A PARAGRAPH
Joonas Korpisalo was deputized in net in place of Sergei Bobrovsky on the second night of a back-to-back and twice had leads at 1-0 and 2-1. But Carolina tied the game midway through the third, leading to Columbus' ninth overtime game of the young campaign. After a scoreless OT, Cam Atkinson and Artemi Panarin scored in the shootout to give the Blue Jackets the win.
NOTABLES
- Zach Werenski had a goal and an assist, marking the young defenseman's third multi-point game of the season. He had five shots on goal while playing more than 28 minutes.
- Pierre-Luc Dubois had the primary assist on the first goal, giving him three points in the last five games.
- Jack Johnson finished plus-2 in 21:44 of action.
STAT ATTACK
Alexander Wennberg returned for the first time since Nov. 11. He missed five games with an upper-body injury. ... Korpisalo made his first start at the NHL level since Nov. 7 vs. Nashville. ... Korpisalo's win was his second of the season. ... Columbus improved to 8-1 in overtime/shootout, 10-1-0 when leading after two periods, 9-0-1 in one-goal games and 12-4-1 vs. the Eastern Conference. ... Columbus had an 37-31 edge in shots on goal. ... The win was John Tortorella's 100th as head coach of the Blue Jackets. ... The Jackets are now 2-1 vs. Carolina this year with both wins in extra time.
WHAT HAPPENED
The first period was full of action with a pair of goals and a pair of breakaways that were denied.
It took just 1:10 for the Jackets to get on the board as Anderson tallied off a pass from Dubois past Carolina goalie Scott Darling. Dubois caught a breakout feed from Werenski in full flight and made a power move to the net along the right wing before a feed across the crease for Anderson to stuff home for his ninth goal of the year.
Carolina scored in somewhat similar fashion at 7:41 to make it a 1-1 game. Markus Nutivaara got caught pinching in the offensive zone to create an odd-man rush, and Noah Hanifin finished the 2-on-1 by flipping Derek Ryan's cross-crease feed over Korpisalo.
From there, the teams traded breakaway chances. First, Atkinson took a pass from Sonny Milano and went in alone for nearly 100 feet on Darling, but the Carolina netminder made the five-hole stop. Later, Carolina's Ryan earned a shorthanded breakaway, but fanned on the shot and Korpisalo flipped it away.
Columbus regained the lead 3:47 into the second as Wennberg made his presence felt. On a rush, he attracted the defense in the left side of the offensive zone, then found Werenski alone on the right. From there, the defenseman simply sniped a shot over the near shoulder of Darling to make it 2-1 with his seventh goal of the year.
Confirmed: Wennberg still a great passer.
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) November 29, 2017
Confirmed: Werenski still has a great shot.#CBJ pic.twitter.com/bqCDMn2PoS
From there, Korpisalo was Korpi-solid until Carolina's push led to a goal from Brock McGinn with 9:51 to play in the third. This one came in transition, as Josh Jooris found McGinn trailing the play and he fired a slap shot from between the circles that Korpisalo got a piece of but still trickled into the net.
With about seven minutes to go, a hard shot by Atkinson caught Darling up high and stunned the goalie, but he still was able to dive across his crease to stop the follow-up attempt by Tyler Motte.
With no winning goal in the offing in the first 60 minutes, the division foes went to overtime and then a shootout. Atkinson juked Darling out of his pads to start things off, scoring on the forehand, before Carolina's Sebastian Aho rang the post. Artemi Panarin's customary slow skate in from the left side ended with a goal over Darling's glove, and Teuvo Teravainen fired wide of Korpisalo to finsh things off.
INJURY REPORT
Scott Harrington stepped into the defensive corps for just the third time this season in place of the injured Ryan Murray, while Columbus avoided a pair of injury scares in the first period. Werenski and Anderson each left for a time but returned in the period. Werenski was favoring his arm after a collision near the blue line, while Anderson went hard into the boards behind the Canes' net after getting tangled up with Jaccob Slavin.
Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno also had to leave the game for a time in the second period when a slap shot by Seth Jones hit him in the breadbasket, but he returned after going down the tunnel.
NEXT UP
Columbus returns to action Friday night with a 7 p.m. home game against Anaheim.
