For the second time this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets hosted the Carolina Hurricanes. For the second time this season, the Blue Jackets won in a shootout.
Kirill Marchenko scored twice. Dmitri Voronkov added a goal and an assist while Sean Monahan tallied three assists to lift the Blue Jackets to a 4-3 win in a shootout over the Hurricanes. Their dominance in the first 65 minutes helped the team get in position to win.
Game Recap
It didn’t take long for Marchenko to open the scoring. Monahan drew two defenders to him. In the process, he had a lane and hit Marchenko with the pass. With time and space, Marchenko made no mistake in scoring his 15th goal of the season. Denton Mateychuk also assisted giving him his first NHL point.
The Hurricanes were able to tie the game just over five minutes later. Newest Hurricane Ty Smith scored from distance. The new power-play quarterback found room and his shot was deflected off Ivan Provorov and behind Elvis Merzlikins.
Marchenko responded with his second of the night just under six minutes later. He got the puck on the wall and shot it right at a fallen Pyotr Kochetkov. The shot found its way in. It was a good heads up play that ultimately surprised the Hurricanes’ netminder. That gave Marchenko eight goals in nine career games against the Hurricanes.
The next part of the game was controlled by the Hurricanes. Goals by former Blue Jacket Jack Roslovic and then Jesperi Kotkaniemi gave them a 3-2 lead after two. To the Blue Jackets’ credit, they hung in there knowing they were just one shot from tying the game.
Then in the third, the Blue Jackets found that elusive tying goal. Voronkov saw Marchenko on the other side and attempted a pass. But instead of reaching its intended target, the puck hit a Hurricanes’ player in front and went in. That power-play goal made it 3-3.
It setup for an eventful overtime. Both teams had chances but both goalies came up big. Zach Aston-Reese took a tripping penalty with just 12 second left in overtime. The Hurricanes failed to score so a shootout was required.
In the shootout, Andrei Svechnikov scored in the bottom of the second. That forced Kent Johnson to have to score to keep the game going. He did. Merzlikins then denied Seth Jarvis to send it to extras.
Adam Fantilli beat Kochetkov to give the Blue Jackets the lead. Sebastian Aho’s attempt was stopped by Merzlikins to seal the win and the two points.
The Hurricanes lost Tyson Jost to an apparent injury in the third period. With the win, the Blue Jackets improve to 2-1 against the Hurricanes this season and 4-1-1 against Metropolitan Division foes at home. Merzlikins made 32 saves while Kochetkov stopped 25 in defeat.
The Blue Jackets will enjoy New Year’s Day off before hosting the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. The Hurricanes are now off to Florida as their road trip continues.