Tuesday night’s first period was one the Blue Jackets wanted to quickly erase.
It was chaotic at times, scrambling to get out of their own zone, taking careless penalties and allowing two power play goals to fall behind early. Carolina was skating, winning races and getting the bounces — and everything compounded in a negative way on a Ryan Murphy power play goal with 9.6 seconds left in the period.
A loose puck caromed out to the right point, and Murphy stepped into a long slap shot that made its way through traffic and beat Sergei Bobrovsky to give the Hurricanes a late 3-1 lead. In frustration, Bobrovsky slammed his stick on the ice.
The Blue Jackets definitely took notice, and from that point on, they were a different hockey team and one that dictated the proceedings in the final 40 minutes. Scott Hartnell led the way, scoring two power play goals (Columbus tallied three times on the man advantage overall) to bring the Jackets within a goal and eventually tie the game 6:10 into the third period.
“It was a frustrating start for us,” Hartnell said post-game. “The power play got some chances…we’ve talked about keeping it simple and getting pucks to the net. We had a couple of chances early on, with tip-ins, rebounds, and things like that. Sometimes you get the bounces, and tonight, we took advantage of our opportunities and put it in the net.”
Rene Bourque scored his first goal as a Blue Jacket in the first period, but Columbus faced a two-goal deficit with 40 minutes to go. They chipped away slowly but surely, while in the process getting back on their forechecking horse and making much better decisions with the puck in the second and third.
Kevin Connautuon, in his first game since Feb. 24, made a nice play to get the puck toward the net early in the second period and Hartnell banged in the rebound at 2:21, drawing the Jackets within a goal at 3-2.
Hartnell was in the right place at the right time in the third period, collecting a loose puck at the side of the net and beating Cam Ward high to the stick side six minutes in. In a game that had its share of ups and downs — and as mentioned earlier, a first period to forget — the Blue Jackets battled back and found a way to get the game to OT and scratch out a point.
And for as much as their power play has struggled lately, the Blue Jackets scored all three goals on the power play tonight.
“We got pucks to the net and we were able to converge,” said Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards.
In the shootout, Bobrovsky was excellent, stopping red-hot Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask and Jeff Skinner in 1-2-3 order and Ryan Johansen supplied the winner in a 4-3 final. It was the Blue Jackets’ first win in the season series with Carolina, and the two teams face each other again in just a few days back at Nationwide Arena on Sunday.
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