In Raleigh, the Columbus Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead into the third period on Thursday night, and broke the game open with four more goals in a 6-0 shelling of the Hurricanes.
Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves for the shutout win.
“Carolina’s a really, really good hockey team,” Merzlikins saidL. “They’re fast, they’re strong. The puck moves really, really quick. I just enjoyed the game.”
Yegor Chinakhov had two goals for Columbus, the first came in the opening frame for a 1-0 lead.
“It started right from the first shift,” Columbus head coach Brad Larsen said. “We had a high compete level tonight. We know what that team is all about and how dangerous and good they are. It was a full 60 (minutes).”
Emil Bemstrom pushed the lead to 2-0 in the middle frame.
The Blue Jackets improved to 17-17-1.
In a span of 67 seconds, the Blue Jackets blew the game open with three goals.
“That was not good, pretty much not a good effort by everybody,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said after Carolina played its first game in five days and was shut out for the first time this season in its 34th game. “Haven’t really had those ever. That was a really poor effort.
“I felt like we were going to be scrambly and rusty. I expected that, but that doesn’t affect how hard you’ve got to work. We didn’t come ready in that department, so that’s what you get.”
Patrik Laine started the outburst for a 3-0 lead.
“You don’t want to overthink this,” Larsen said. “It’s one game. We played a good game and I’m happy we did. I think what you take from it is what it felt like on the bench, the engagement. I’m not going to think too far ahead on so much the lessons, other than we played a really solid game. That should be a little bit of a barometer of what it should look and feel like on the effort side.”
Chinakhov hit his second, and Cole Sillinger put the Jackets up, 5-0.
“I’ve never done that before, never practiced that,” Chinakhov said. “It looked like the goalie waited for a shot and I made the move. It just worked out that way.”
The Hurricanes dropped to 24-8-2.
Jack Roslovic hit for the final goal late in the third for the 6-0 final.
“We were giving up breakaway after breakaway,” Brind’Amour said. “I’m not going to leave ‘Freddie’ in there to keep having that. I figure, maybe we throw [LaFontaine] in and we decide, oh, we better not give those up. But that’s not what happened. I hate that we threw him in for that, but he got his feet wet a little bit.”
Frederik Andersen yielded four of the Columbus goals and made 24 saves.
Jack LaFontaine made one save in his first NHL action.
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