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The Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up their five-game homestand win a win last night, battling back to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2.
The Hurricanes opened the game with a good first period, generating chances with their speed and forecheck, and outshot the Blue Jackets 18-8 in the frame. But after a quieter middle frame, the Blue Jackets managed to open the scoring only 13 seconds into the third period, with Kirill Marchenko just throwing a shot on net that ramped off Brady Skjei’s stick and in. Then only six minutes later, Johnny Gaudreau walked in towards Carolina's net off a turnover and his shot deflected in off Skjei and in as well, for a second fluke goal putting Columbus up 2-0.
Carolina battled back from there though, following Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen swapping places in the top-six. First, Jesperi Kotkaniemi picked a corner around the midway mark of the frame with a nice shot in-close, to get the Hurricanes on the board. Then after a couple good chances to tie it where the Hurricanes just couldn't convert, Brady Skjei managed to whack in a puck with a little over three minutes to go, tying the game.
The Hurricanes weren’t done there, and only about a minute later, after Andrei Svechnikov took a puck up high in the neutral zone, he joined the rush to take a pass from Sebastian Aho and beat Elvis Merzlikins, putting Carolina ahead for the first time in the game.
Carolina held on from there for the final two minutes, picking up the 3-2 come-from-behind win.
It was a big win for the Hurricanes to wrap up the homestand, rebounding after a blowout loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.
Carolina went on to outshoot Columbus by a massive 43-23 margin, and other than a bit more of an even middle frame, the Hurricanes put together a dominant performance. Even the two goals allowed against Pyotr Kochetkov were bad bounces more than anything, and it’s hard to find a ton wrong with the performance, even if they had to battle back at home against one of the league’s worst teams.
It was also a big game-winning goal for Andrei Svechnikov, finally picking up his first tally of the season through 12 games. After a slow start following his return, Svechnikov is riding a four-game point streak. We can also probably expect Svechnikov will remain on the Aho line short-term, following the late-game success.
One thing that would still be great to see is more production from the Martinook-Staal-Fast line. The efforts are always consistent and while they can still act as a shutdown trio, the line was so impactful at stretches this year, but have combined for just three goals this season.
Looking at the homestand as a whole, the Hurricanes’ 3-2-0 record is pretty reflective of their play. It was a disappointing outing against the Philadelphia Flyers to kick things off, but the next four games were all fairly strong performances, where even the blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning had positives.
The Hurricanes stand at a 12-8-0 record coming off the homestand, putting them seventh in the conference in points percentage. Other than the two division leaders in the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers, it’s a pretty wide open East right now, so Carolina still has an opportunity to start climbing up the standings if they can string together some wins.
The Hurricanes will be back in action tomorrow, as they face the Philadelphia Flyers.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM NOVEMBER
- Hurricanes battle back to beat Islanders in OT, split two-game New York set
- Frederik Andersen out indefinitely, Hurricanes sign Jaroslav Halak to PTO
- Hurricanes continue upward trend with overtime win against Sabres
- Hurricanes' homestand an opportunity to continue gaining ground in East
- Hurricanes open homestand with loss to Flyers
- Hurricanes take down Penguins in Metropolitan Division clash
- Hurricanes hold off Oilers for 6-3 win after explosive first period
- Hurricanes give up eight goals in blowout loss to Lightning 
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