What Cost Them the Second Point
After an excellent road period of hockey, being up 3-1 in the first, the Hurricanes looked like a much different team in the second. Suffering a questionable holding call on Pesce early on, Mrazek made a series of good saves on the penalty kill to keep the two goal lead in tact. However, after out playing the Canes for a few shifts, you could just sense a Columbus goal was bound to happen.
With Murray finally besting Petr, the momentum had shifted. For the entirety of the second, the period of the long change, Carolina struggled with their line changes. In what played a huge role in the Milano goal, all five Canes players went off the ice, leaving Columbus a clear path out of their defensive zone and into the offensive zone.
If the line changes weren’t ugly enough, the Canes also had a bit of difficulty with turnovers once again. It seemed that every time they looked to set up something in Columbus’ end, they would hand the puck over to the Blue Jackets’ forwards at their offensive blueline.
This is something that is easily avoidable and correctible. One may attribute that to rust, but at the end of the day it cost the Canes two important points in a divisional matchup.
"It's not good enough. And we're going to have to find a way to get back on track and really start to push each other to be better."
— Bally Sports: Canes (@CanesOnBally) October 25, 2019
-The Captain Jordan Staal on tonight's 4-3 OT loss to Columbus.@Canes | #LetsGoCanes pic.twitter.com/wX5UwDh1KJ
These two teams wont met again until January 16th. After giving up leads in similar fashions twice to the Jackets already this season, the players are going to have to clean a few things up if they want to get their season back on track. Whenever you play divisional opponents points are more important than ever, and Carolina already let three slip away.
Question for CC Readers: Now that Aho has finally scored, which Hurricanes forward will be the next to find the back of the net for the first time this season?