As the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs arrive in just two weeks, the Carolina Hurricanes looked to be in great shape for playoff contention as they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night, 5-1.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes (48-21-6) brought defensive domination to the visiting Blue Jackets (38-26-12) while scoring five goals at the Lenovo Center.<\/p>\n
Coming off a victory in Columbus on Tuesday, the Canes came back home to play the Blue Jackets in a series finale. This win marks the eighth year in a row that the Hurricanes have made the playoffs under head coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour. In contrast, Columbus\u2019 loss now puts them in a tight battle for the final Wild Card spot in the East.<\/p>\n
The Canes wasted no time as they put up three goals early in the first period. Within three minutes, center Logan Stankoven delivered the first goal for Carolina, which was assisted by defensemen K\u2019Andre Miller and left wing Taylor Hall.<\/p>\n
Soon after, Stankoven struck again with another goal after Hall and right wing Jackson Blake came to aid in the score.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have tons of chances and they don\u2019t go in, it\u2019s a little frustrating,\u201d Stankoven said. \u201cBut on a night like this, it\u2019s nice to see the bounces go my way for once. I haven\u2019t changed anything, I think our line is still playing great, creating chances and trying to be relentless on pucks. It\u2019s nice to see a couple go in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, with assists by centers Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho, defensemen Alexander Nikishin increased the lead after a shorthanded goal that ricocheted off the post and landed inside for the score. With that goal, Nikishin is the first rookie defensemen to score a short-handed goal in Hurricanes history.<\/p>\n
Carolina would end the first period with more goals than Columbus had shots, with three versus two.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about what you give up,\u201d Brind\u2019Amour said. \u201cWe had a really solid start. I think that once we got up by three, the game got a little iffy, but I like that we limited \u2014 for the most part \u2014 their opportunities. There certainly were a few that they could have capitalized on, but overall, I thought that part of the game was fairly good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second period would be scoreless for a little over 11 minutes, until the Blue Jackets made their first and only goal of the night with defensemen Denton Mateychuk scoring after assists from center Boone Jenner and left wing Miles wood.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes retaliated 13 seconds later with another goal by left wing Jordan Martinook after being assisted by center Jordan Staal, spreading the lead even further.<\/p>\n
Carolina continued their takeover in the third period, when defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere assisted in a power-play goal by right wing Andrei Svechnikov. Svehchnikov\u2019s goal was the Canes fifth and final score of the game.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes\u2019 defense was on another level tonight, matching the franchise record for fewest shots against with only 10 being allowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This game would also mark another significant milestone, as this was the 1,400th game that Canes captain Jordan Staal would play. He is the 46th player in NHL history to accomplish this feat.<\/p>\n
Carolina\u2019s victory handed them their third win over Columbus this season, winning the season series against the Blue Jackets 3-1.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes will be home for their next game against the New York Islanders on Saturday, April 4 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs arrive in just two weeks, the Carolina Hurricanes looked to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-539237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116343095438072826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}