Canes fall flat in blowout loss to Columbus

Not much went right for the Carolina Hurricanes in PNC Arena Saturday night, as the Columbus Blue Jackets vanquished the Canes 4-1 behind a Cam Atkinson hat trick.

After starting the season 6-3-1, and the Canes (8-8-3) are just 2-5-2 over their last nine games and have fallen to 12th in the Eastern Conference. Along with the three goals from Atkinson, the Blue Jackets (12-6-2) got three assists from forward Artemi Panarin to breeze past Carolina.

“They were first to everything,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They played like a first place team, and we didn’t have the desperation that we need, and that’s what was frustrating. But, like I said, I literally think that was the first one of the 19 games that we’ve played that [getting upset has] happened for me.”

Scott Darling started in net for the Canes and had a night to forget, allowing four goals on 24 shots faced. Darling got a pad on two of the Blue Jackets’ tallies, but couldn’t do enough to keep them out of net. Sergei Bobrovsky got the win in goal for Columbus, as the two-time Vezina winner stopped 30 of 31 Canes shots.

“It was just ‘meh,’” Canes captain Justin Williams said. “It was not the brand of hockey that we’ve been mostly playing throughout the first few games this season. The good news is it’s behind us and we play again tomorrow. We can watch this and have a more different tone tomorrow.”

Carolina was coming off of a long break, having not played in five days after beating Chicago at home on Monday. The rust was clear for the Canes, who came out flat and let Columbus take control from the start.

“We hadn’t played in four or five days, so felt like we were having a fresh start,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s kinda how we looked at it. We gave the guys some time off, and I think that probably hurt us more than helped us. I think it might help us further down the line in the year, but I think it was a little too much of a break, and we kind of forgot how hard it is to play.”

Columbus struck first, as Darling let a shot in the slot from Atkinson slip between his arm and body and into the back of the net. Atkinson received a feed from forward Artemi Panarin, and fired it right at Darling’s glove side. Darling attempted to close down on the puck, but it powered through Darling and dribbled across the line for the goal.

Atkinson doubled the Jackets’ lead with his second goal of the game, making it 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period. Panarin got the puck in the Canes’ attacking zone and fought through the sticks of three Canes defenders to get a pass off to Atkinson in front of net.

Darling attempted to poke check the puck clear of Atkinson, but couldn’t get enough of the it to clear the danger. Atkinson fired a back-handed shot into an open net, tallying his 11th goal of the season.

Aho got the Canes on the board with an absolutely phenomenal individual effort. After receiving a pass from defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, who was credited with an assist, Aho scored a fantastic wrap-around, backhanded goal to beat Bobrovsky.

Aho skated around the back of net and tightly fired the backhanded effort across Bobrovsky. The puck was placed perfectly into the corner of the net, just clearing Bobrovsky’s pad. It was Aho’s sixth goal of the season, second on the team to linemate Micheal Ferland.

However, as quickly as the Canes cut the lead to one goal, the Blue Jackets answered to make it 3-1 on a goal from defenseman Zach Werenski. Panarin won a battle in the neutral zone and fired a good pass up the ice to Atkinson. Atkinson laid it off for Werenski, who fired a slapshot from the point past Darling.

Columbus made it 4-1 later in the second period, as Atkinson collected his hat trick on a power-play goal. Canes forward Andrei Svechnikov got sent to the box for high sticking, and the Blue Jackets made Carolina pay. Atkinson fired a shot from between the circles, which hit off of Darling’s blocker and into the net.

“We were a second off here and there, and because we were a second off we lost every single battle,” Williams said. “They won every small battle tonight, and this is a game of winning the little things. They played like they wanted to win.”

With very avoidable penalties, one for delay of game and one for too many men on the ice, the Blue Jackets gave the Canes an opportunity to get back in the game in the waning minutes of the second period.

However, the Canes couldn’t capitalize as Carolina’s power play fell flat twice in a row, mustering a total of just three shots on net between the two man advantages. The Hurricanes also had another power-play opportunity in the third period, but again couldn’t find a goal.

Carolina doesn’t have long to recover, as the Canes will host the New Jersey Devils Sunday afternoon in the second leg of a back-to-back.

“It was a dud,” Williams said. “Just call it what it was. It was a dud and certainly unacceptable. Good news is we come back tomorrow and rectify this.”