Canes cap Columbus, 3-0

In Columbus, Alex Nedeljkovic made 19 saves  to shut out the Blue Jackets in a 3-0 win for the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

“I don’t know if you can ever top the first [shutout],” he said. “The first one only happens once. I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it, but yeah, I had family in the stands tonight, so it was nice for them to actually be here.”

Brady Skjei scored in the opening frame to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.

“They checked tonight, and we couldn’t get through it,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said. “It’s a big part of what they do, and tonight we had trouble getting through it.”

Dougie Hamilton extended his point streak to 12 games, with an assist.

“I don’t think about it too much,” Hamilton said. “It’s just trying to take it day by day and one game at a time. I know it’s a cliché, but with the schedule right now, it’s just kind of focus on one game.

“I’m lucky to play with great players and guys making good plays.”.

Jesper Fast pushed the lead to 2-0 in the middle frame.

“The first two games [of the series], I think we played pretty good hockey, but tonight we played a complete 60-minute hockey game,” Fast said. “We were working hard and doing the right things, so a really good game. Even though we lost those games, the way we played was good.”

Martin Necas added a goal for Carolina to make it 3-0 in the second period.

“I felt really good about our games,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We had one iffy period out of the whole set so far, the first game, first period, so it was a solid effort all the way around, and we got some nice plays but we didn’t cash in. But tonight they did, and I thought for two periods, especially, we just kind of controlled the game that we had to win.”

Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves in the loss.

“We didn’t check well enough in the second, and they did. That’s the difference,” the Blue Jackets’ Nick Foligno said. “We didn’t have that checking level we need to have in the second. They are a hard team to come back on. We were not diligent in the way we checked and that came back on us.”