The Blue Jackets, obviously huge fans of the dramatic, are headed into the Christmas break on their highest high of the season – and they have surprise starting goaltender Mike McKenna to thank.
Down 3-2 late in the third period at PNC Arena, the Blue Jackets saw a great start to the final stanza dissipate into disappointment after Alex Semin gave Carolina its first lead of the game midway through.
The Hurricanes, who got their only offense (to that point) from the power play and in particular Jeff Skinner, got the lead goal on a bad bounce off the linesman’s skate boot which created a 2-on-1 for Jordan Staal and Semin.
But unlike previous chapters of this season’s story, the Blue Jackets penned an absolute thriller in the final minutes of regulation.
Nick Foligno, who almost didn’t play in this game due to a stiff neck, took off on a mini-rush and fed Ryan Johansen down the right wing. Johansen made it happen once again, dropping to one knee and roofing his 15th goal of the season over Justin Peters to pull the Blue Jackets even with 4:02 to play in regulation.
But they weren’t done there. Not in the least.
A few shifts later, Brandon Dubinsky zipped a cross-ice feed to James Wisniewski in the neutral zone and Wisniewski hit Artem Anisimov at the offensive blue line with a pass that caught the Hurricanes off-guard.
Rather than shoot through traffic, Anisimov slid a behind-the-back pass to Jack Skille and Skille ripped his fourth goal in seven games short-side over Peters, giving Columbus a 4-3 lead with 2:34 to play.
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