Hurricanes 3, Blue Jackets 1

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.