The Carolina Hurricanes’ winning streak finally came to a close Saturday night as they fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2.
The Hurricanes (5-1-0) for the first time in a while didn’t seem like the hardest-working team on the ice as the Blue Jackets (2-3-0) managed to outskate and outplay them in most facets. Skating faster, being stronger on the puck and clogging up the neutral zone and passing lanes with shut down defense, Columbus handed Carolina some of its own medicine.
“I think part of the reason was we were making it hard on ourselves,” said captain Jordan Staal. “I think when you’re a little bit tired you start making more mental mistakes. I thought our decisions with the puck and trying to be cute in a game that just wasn’t like that made it hard for us to sustain and roll them over and get some momentum.”
With both teams playing the second game of a back-to-back, Carolina went with James Reimer as the starter while Columbus decided to run with Joonas Korpisalo again despite him playing in a 2-1 loss to the Ducks the night before. The decision worked out for the Jackets as Korpisalo posted a 0.938 save percentage and stoned multiple Canes on what looked like sure-fire goals.
The game started with an early scare as defenseman Haydn Fleury took a hard fall head first into the boards after being hooked. He stayed on the ice for a while before then heading straight to the room. He luckily returned to the ice a few minutes later.
The Blue Jackets broke the ice first in the match due to blown coverage as Columbus blueliner Markus Nutivaara was left all alone on the backdoor for an easy tap-in goal.
However, the Hurricanes responded 27 seconds later with a beautiful display of passing to set up a tic-tac-toe goal. A series of one-touch passes led to Erik Haula banging the puck in from the slot. Four Carolina players touched the puck within five seconds of the puck hitting the back of the net.
Carolina got the go-ahead goal soon into the second period on a sequence where Korpisalo lost his stick while the Canes were controlling the puck in the offensive zone. Hamilton cycled to the point where he smashed a one-timer right past Korpisalo to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead.
Columbus showed that it could respond just as well as Oliver Bjorkstrand skated a lap from behind the net to the slot, where he ripped a wrister over the shoulder of James Reimer to tie the game only 17 seconds after Carolina’s goal.
The Blue Jackets showed they were ready to go toe-for-toe against the Hurricanes forecheck and it really showed in their resilience. The shot chances for both teams ran equal throughout the game and Columbus was showing its ability to compete despite the many key departures in the offseason.
At the onset of the third period, a Brock McGinn turnover led to a Pierre-Luc Dubois breakaway where he made no mistake going to the backhand to beat Reimer.
The Blue Jackets then locked the game down, holding the Hurricanes off the scoresheet and preserving their one-goal lead.
“They did exactly how we thought they were going to come and play us and we weren’t prepared,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We didn’t mentally prepare properly as a group to that kind of game. We got what we deserved in my opinion.”
Carolina has been playing extremely good hockey the past two weeks and was due for a bit of a come down. While starting off the game hot, the obvious fatigue of the back-to-back and the high amount of games the team has played seemed to have taken their toll.
The next question is how they respond. With a long road trip coming up, the Canes will need to come out just as strong as they started and not sit back on their laurels if they hope to keep building momentum and not let the rest of the league catch up to them.
The Hurricanes set off on a four-game road trip that will see them take on the west coast California gauntlet and end with a rematch in Columbus. The first game will be Oct. 15 against the LA Kings.
