The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 in overtime at Nationwide Arena Saturday night.
Despite giving up a three-goal lead, the Hurricanes (18-18-7), led by Jordan Staal, persevered to win it in overtime for their second win in as many nights against the Blue Jackets (15-24-4).
The game got off to a physical start, with both teams throwing hard, clean hits, which was to be expected following a controversial hit by Canes forward Brad Malone the night before on Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno.
The NHL Department of Player Safety reviewed the hit before the game and determined it was clean and Malone would not be suspended — a decision Columbus clearly didn’t agree with.
The Blue Jackets looked for retribution only two minutes into the game on Malone’s first shift of the night. Columbus forward Jared Boll dropped the gloves with Malone, yet continued to punch Malone while they were both laying on the ice.
Halfway through the first period, Carolina struck first with a power-play goal from forward Andrej Nestrasil. Canes forward Elias Lindholm placed a beautiful saucer pass, over a sprawling Columbus defender, cross-ice to Nestrasil who one-timed it past Columbus netminder Joonas Korpisalo.
The Hurricanes padded their lead only a minute and a half into the second period as forward Eric Staal found a streaking Kris Versteeg with a pass into the slot. Versteeg put a beautiful move on Korpisalo and finished for his 300th career NHL point.
Carolina continued the offensive pressure and made it 3-0 later in the second period as defenseman John-Michael Liles pinched in from his position on the blue line and put a rebound into the net.
Columbus responded with a shorthanded breakaway goal from forward Cam Atkinson to make it 3-1 with less than five minutes remaining in the middle frame.
Alexander Wennberg’s goal in the first five minutes of the final period pulled the Blue Jackets to within one goal after falling behind 3-0 in the first 28 minutes of the game.
Columbus forward Josh Anderson scored his first career NHL goal with eight minutes remaining to tie the game, and give the Blue Jackets all sorts of momentum down the final stretch of regulation.
Jordan Staal gave the Canes a 4-3 win in overtime after making a great defensively play and taking the puck into the Columbus zone, where he beat Korpisalo from the faceoff dot.
