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The Carolina Hurricanes were outshot and out-chanced against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but came up with a huge 46 save performance by Anton Khudobin as they defeated the Jackets, 3-1 on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.
Newcomer Andrei Loktionov had a goal and an assist to lead the scoring for the Canes. The goal was his first as a Hurricane.
The Hurricanes were outshot 47-20 for the game, and were drubbed by a 19-0 margin in the third period, but their goalie made save after save and got within 50 seconds of a shutout as the home team could not light the lamp until late, on a tipped shot.
The Canes not only played without Jiri Tlusty and John-Michael Liles who were both out with injuries, but Elias Lindholm and Justin Faulk also both missed the game because of illness.
Ryan Murphy was on the receiving side of a high hit by Blake Comeau, who was just returning from a suspension, and left the game early with an upper body concern.
After his team killed a penalty early, Nathan Gerbe brought the puck down and faked a pass then beat starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to give the Canes a 1-0 lead just 3:42 into the game. The Jackets put heavy pressure on Khudobin after that, but the goalie was on his "A" game this night.
Early in the second period, the Canes got a rare powerplay goal from Loktionov, after he tucked a rebound in the net off of a Jay Harrison shot from the point.
Later in the period, Patrick Dwyer blasted a puck past Bobrovsky making it 3-0 and the former Vezina winner would not return for the third period. As it turned out, the Jackets did not need a goalie in the third as the Canes sat back and protected their lead while failing to generate a single shot on goal for the period.
The Hurricanes can feel good about the win and should feel good, but this may have been more about good luck than out-playing their opponent. The top line of Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, and Alexander Semin did not really generate a whole lot of offense and went pointless.
Next up for Carolina is Chicago on Friday night.
Game Notes:
- The Canes were outshot 47-20 and were led by Loktionov and Sekera with three each.
- Sekera had a game high 27:21 of ice time. Semin led all Carolina forwards for the third game in a row, this time with 24:38 of time on the ice.
- The Hurricanes had a total of 17 blocked shots this game and were led by Hainsey with four and Sekera with three.
- The boys might be a bit sore after this one as they were out-hit for the game 46-19. Corey Tropp had nine by himself for the home team.
- This was the first win for Carolina in Nationwide Arena since 2004.
- Post game interviews are at Canes PR.com.