Thursday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets faced the Carolina Hurricanes at Nationwide Arena. They faced former teammate Spencer Martin, who was in the net for the Hurricanes. Martin had been picked up off of waivers by Carolina this past January. There were a few changes in the Blue Jackets lineup from the previous night’s game against the New York Rangers. Daniil Tarasov started in goal, as Elvis Merzlikins had started the night before. In the Blue Jackets/Rangers game, it appeared Kent Johnson had suffered an upper-body injury, which kept him out of the lineup in Thursday’s game. Alexander Texier took his spot for the night. The Blue Jackets started all 5 Russian members of the team: Dmitri Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko, Yegor Chinakhov, Ivan Provorov, and, as mentioned, Daniil Tarasov. Damon Severson would fill in as the second defenceman.
1st Period
The Blue Jackets came out looking much like the previous few games, with a few sharp passes and playing with speed. Playing a game the night before didn’t seem to affect the Blue Jackets in the first period. Alex Nylander showed some impressive speed early on. Both the Jackets and Hurricanes would see some shot attempts, but Martin and Tarasov would stop all this period. Towards the end of the period, fatigue from the previous game may have started to settle in for the Blue Jackets. Passes got a little sloppier, and Severson would get called for a tripping penalty with about 5 minutes left. The Jackets’ penalty kill was effective early on, and it would be the only penalty kill Columbus had all night.
2nd Period
After the first intermission, the Carolina Hurricanes came out strong and notched a goal 43 seconds into the period to make the game 1-0. A minute later, they would score again, but this time, the goal was successfully challenged for offsides to keep the score 1-0. The Blue Jackets are 8 for 8 in challenges so far this season. Sebastian Aho got his 23rd goal of the season a few minutes later. Aho is currently the points leader for the Hurricanes with 61. A short while later, Cole Sillinger found the back of the net, giving newcomer Alex Nylander his first assist and point as a Columbus Blue Jacket. Texier drew a penalty against Brady Skjei, giving the Blue Jackets a power play opportunity. They did not capitalize, and Skjei was able to pick up the puck on his way out of the penalty box, drive to the net, and score to make it 2-0 Canes. Cole Sillinger made another goal attempt but could not find the back of the net this time.
3rd Period
Shortly after the 3rd period started, the Carolina Hurricanes got nine shot attempts in a row. Five were stopped by Tarasov, one was blocked by Zach Werenski, and 3 missed. The Blue Jackets got a break about 8 minutes into the period when Jordan Martinook was called for a tripping penalty against Boone Jenner. During the powerplay, Alex Nylander would show up big again and score his first NHL goal of the season and his first as a Blue Jacket making the game 2-3. One thing to note was that Yegor Chinakhov did not see any ice time in the 3rd. Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent cited turnovers as the reason. Toward the end of the game, the Jackets would pull their goaltender to get an extra skater on the ice. They made a few good attempts on goal, but ultimately, Carolina’s Seth Jarvis would score on the empty net with 15 seconds to go. The game ended 4-2
These two teams will have two more matchups this season. They next meet on April 7 and again on April 16 for the Blue Jackets’ last game of the season. The Blue Jackets next play on Saturday, March 2nd at 8 PM EST against the Chicago Blackhawks.
