The Columbus Blue Jackets finished strong but could not climb all the way back on Thursday, Oct. 29, falling 3-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Carolina, the reigning Stanley Cup champion, built its lead on goals from Jordan Martinook and Logan Stankoven and a goal by Mark Jankowski 16 seconds into the third period, The Columbus Dispatch reported. That Jankowski goal stretched the margin to three and proved to be the difference in the game.
Columbus answered in the third period. Denton Mateychuk scored at 6:56 of the third to cut the deficit to 3-1 and extend his goal streak to three straight games, and Kent Johnson followed at 9:50, capping a power play with his seventh goal of the season, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The two goals came 2:54 apart and pulled the Blue Jackets within one.
“If you can have your building blocks off that, pressuring pucks and being in their face, it’s hard to play against,” Mateychuk told The Columbus Dispatch. “That’s one of the best teams at it, and I feel like we gave them a bit of their own medicine in the third there. That’s what they’re used to doing to teams, and that’s a glimpse of what we want to do for a full 60 [minutes].”
The tying goal never came. Columbus pushed late with its net empty for a 6-on-5 advantage, but Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, who finished with 24 saves, did not allow another goal, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves also made 24 saves in his first game since taking the loss on Oct. 20 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The loss drops Columbus to 5-6-0 on the season. Carolina improved to 11-2-2, has won four of its past five games, and sits atop the Metropolitan Division with 24 points, eight points ahead of the second-place New Jersey Devils, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
What happens next for Columbus is the end of its first multi-game road trip of the season: the Blue Jackets play on Oct. 31 in Dallas before returning home to Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
Photo: Eric, CC BY-SA