The Carolina Hurricanes started the new year on the wrong foot, but ultimately executed an impressive comeback to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-4 on Saturday, Jan. 1.
The Canes (23-7-1) stared down a 3-0 deficit in the first intermission, a hole that the Blue Jackets (15-14-1) expanded to 4-0 before Carolina finally woke up. The Hurricanes finally cracked the scoreboard midway through the second period and proceeded to rattle off seven unanswered goals to seal the win.
“In the O-zone tonight, we did a great job hounding their D, making it hard on them and trying to force turnovers,” said center Steven Lorentz. “So eventually it paid off in the third and the floodgates opened up there.”
A disjointed and sluggish Canes blue line necessitated the comeback in the first place, as the Blue Jackets feasted on several odd rushes to beat goaltender Antti Raanta. Even when goaltender Frederik Andersen took over the Canes net to begin the second period, things got worse for Carolina before they got better as Andersen could not quite keep a shot by Alexandre Texier out of his net.
Although Carolina got shut out in the first period, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Canes notched 18 shots in the first period, but Columbus goaltender Daniil Tarasov stifled them at every turn in the opening 20. Even with the big deficit, head coach Rod Brind’Amour and his team never lost hope that they could flip the momentum and make a comeback.
“We were down two, down three, down four; it still felt like if we got into the game, we might actually have a chance,” Brind’Amour said. “Which we did, obviously. The crucial thing, there were a couple of big plays. Freddie came in and made a couple saves right when the game was almost out of hand.”
That goal was the last straw for the Hurricanes however, as Lorentz put Carolina on the scoreboard just 32 seconds later to spark the comeback. Defenseman Tony DeAngelo ripped a shot from point and Lorentz pounced on the rebound to beat Tarasov, who had stifled the Canes up to that point.
“We understand our role as the fourth line: just go out there and try and make something happen,” Lorentz said. “Try not to get scored on. When there was a big hit, going out to the faceoff, [center Derek Stepan] and [center Seth Jarvis], we all looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, let’s just try and get something going here.’”
Seeing a crack in Columbus’ armor, Carolina started to look a lot more like the team that thrashed the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 just two days prior. Defenseman Brady Skjei scored the first of his two goals in the game before the second period was over. The floodgates opened from there in the third despite Columbus making a goalie switch of their own, bringing in Elvis Merzļikins for the final period.
Not to be left out, right wing Nino Niederreiter and defenseman Ethan Bear scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals, respectively. Lorentz then converted a chance for a crucial insurance goal and right wing Andrei Svechnikov scored on an empty net to put the result on ice.
The NHL postponed several games in Canada for the next few weeks due to attendance restrictions, including the Hurricanes’ Jan. 3 matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canes’ next scheduled game comes against the Calgary Flames on Friday, Jan. 7 in Raleigh. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
