Blue Jackets 5, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes had a good first period and jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but ended up falling badly to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-1 in front of 11,542 on Saturday night at the PNC Arena.

Jeff Skinner continued his hot streak and notched another goal, his 28th of the season at 8:53 into the opening period.  The Canes held the advantage most of the time in the opening 20 minutes and outshot the Jackets, 16-6 for the period.

But Brandon Saad stole an errant pass later in the first and scored on the breakaway to tie the score, 1-1 before the end of the period.

Saad would score twice more in the second period as the Jackets imposed their will.  They outshot the home team in this stanza, 13-2 as the Canes could muster very little in the Columbus zone.

Boone Jenner scored his 30th goal of the season with just a fraction of a second left in the period to make it, 4-1 at the second intermission.

The visitors would score another in the third as they won their first road game  after seven straight road loses.  The Canes will try to regroup before they travel to Boston for a game against the Bruins on Tuesday night.

Game Notes:

• The penalty kill, which has been very good of late, allowed one goal on four chances this game.  The Canes came off their discipline for five penalties, (one was matching).  Carolina went 0-2 with the man advantage.
• Both teams had 27 shots on goal.  The Hurricanes were led by Skinner, Noah Hanifin, and Justin Faulk with four each.
• The Canes were outhit 26-15 in this one.  The Jackets normally try to take advantage of their physical nature against their opponents.
• Jaccob Slavin had a team high 23:32 of ice time.  Faulk was back down to 20:49.
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