The Carolina Hurricanes built a three-goal lead and held off a late third-period push by the Columbus Blue Jackets to secure a 3-2 victory at Lenovo Center on Thursday. Pyotr Kochetkov turned aside 24 shots in net to protect the early advantage.
Carolina opened the scoring late in the first period when Jordan Martinook tallied his second goal of the season at 15:51 on a wrist shot set up by Seth Jarvis and Jaccob Slavin. Logan Stankoven expanded the lead to 2-0 at 7:47 of the second period, beating Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves with a snap shot following assists from Nikolaj Ehlers and Jackson Blake.
Just 16 seconds into the third period, Mark Jankowski scored his seventh goal of the season off a pass from Jarvis to stretch Carolina's cushion to three. Columbus answered back at 6:56 when Denton Mateychuk beat Kochetkov with a snap shot. Less than three minutes later, Kent Johnson deflected in a power-play goal at 9:50 off feeds from Charlie Coyle and Zach Werenski to pull the Blue Jackets within one.
Kochetkov stopped 24 of 26 shots to earn the victory, while Greaves made 24 saves on 27 shots for Columbus in the loss. The Blue Jackets converted on one of their three power-play opportunities, and the Hurricanes came up empty on two chances with the man advantage.
With the win, Carolina improved its regular-season record to 11-2-2 and extended its winning streak to three games. Columbus dropped to 5-6-0 on the season.
Columbus visits the Dallas Stars on Saturday, October 31, at 8:00 PM ET. Carolina returns to Lenovo Center to host the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, November 1, at 1:00 PM ET.
