Ward, Staal lead Canes past Columbus, 3-1

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Caroline Hurricanes benefited form a strong performance from Cam Ward who made 25 saves in a 3-1 win over the Blue Jackets Friday night.

Jordan Staal struck for two goals in the win.

Photo By: Brianna O’Mara

“We’ve always prided ourselves in being hard to play against, and I think we’ve been doing that of late,” Staal said. “We were skating and moving the puck better. Our execution is slowly getting better. It’s been a continued process.”

The Canes improved to 6-5-2 on the campaign.

The Blue Jackets had an early 1-0 lead off a goal from Brandon Dubinsky but could not sustain any momentum off the goal.

“You need to be able to play in tight games. We play a lot of tight games,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “That’s the way it is right now. We’re not getting much offensively.”

Brock McGinn scored into an empty net to seal the win.

The loss dropped the Jackets to 9-7-1.

“We’ve got to get pucks deep, make them go 200 feet, get on their D, make them make some tight passes and create turnovers,” Columbus’ Tyler Motte said. “When we do that, we’re a pretty good team. We have to continue to find our game. If we do that, we can start winning some games.”

[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Blue Jackets highlights]

Sergei Bobrovsky. made 21 saves in the loss.

“We were resilient,” Peters said. “We didn’t give up much, and when we did, we gave up a couple of humdingers. [Ward] was big. He was outstanding.”