In Raleigh, Patrik Laine scored for the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday to give them a 1-0 lead over the Hurricanes.
Carolina responded with four unanswered goals in a 4-1 win on opening night for both clubs.
The Jackets’ Johnny Gaudreau era got off to an inauspicious start with the loss.
“We played hard in the first, took the lead in the second and they scored a big goal there at the end of the second to make it 2-1,” Gaudreau said. “It’s tough giving up goals the last two minutes in a period. That was a big one for them. Other than that, I thought our start was good, but not good enough.”
Frederik Andersen made 31 saves for the Canes in the win.
“I’m just happy to work my way back and [be] healthy enough to play,” Andersen said. “Obviously, it’s fun to be out there playing again. We wanted to take a good first step, and I thought we played really well.”
Laine’s goal game with 11 seconds gone in the second period, but the Canes replied with goals from Seth Jarvis and Brady Skjei for a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
“He (Andersen) put it right on a tee for me. I just tried to hit the net,” Skjei said. “That one save before my goal, [Danforth] was wide open, and he made a huge save there, so that was the turning point in the game probably.”
Lane was injured shortly after he scored.
“We scored early there, (we) were building something and then we lose [Laine],” said Columbus coach Brad Larsen, who did not have an update on Laine. “There were some moments there. We were fine through two (periods).”
The third period featured goals from Martin Necas in the seventh minute of the frame, and Andrei Svechnikov near the midway point of the period for the 4-1 final.
“Last season I had a little tough start,” Necas said. “This season, I tried to build myself in the summer to be a different player this year. Obviously, it’s good to have this kind of start, and especially to win for the boys.”
Neither team scored on the power play in two chances for each side.
“We know there is so much more there,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Necas. “For him to just feel good about his game is going to be huge. We’ve got a lot of these guys that are coming into their own, and he’s just one of them. We need them to keep getting better.”
Daniil Tarasov made 39 saves in the Columbus loss.
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