RECAP: Blue Jackets 4, Hurricanes 1

Cam Atkinson was feeling it and had three goals. Artemi Panarin had the puck on a string and had three assists. Their linemate Pierre-Luc Dubois dished out two assists.
The Blue Jackets' top line showed up and the Carolina Hurricanes could do little to stop them as Atkinson's fifth career hat trick tied Rick Nash for the club record in a 4-1 win at PNC Arena to extend the Blue Jackets' point streak to seven games with their third straight win.
"For all we talk about our balanced scoring it's nice to have one line do what they did and really take a game over," assistant coach Brad Shaw said.

Atkinson got the first two goals of the game and, after the Hurricanes (8-8-3) scored, he assisted on the fourth goal of the season by defenseman Zach Werenski. Atkinson then scored his third goal, on the power-play, at 11:20 of the second period to help the Blue Jackets (12-6-2) maintain first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who like Panarin missed the 7-3 win vs. the Florida Panthers on Thursday because of illness, made 30 saves to improve the Blue Jackets to 5-0-2 in the past seven games.
He's allowed only one goal in four straight games and five of the past six.
"I felt good today and guys made my job a little bit easier," Bobrovsky said. "They worked hard in front of me. They blocked shots. They worked hard defensively. Especially the second period they played good offensively."
But the night belonged to Atkinson
, who has 12 goals. During a four-game goal streak he has nine points (six goals, three assists).
Atkinson made it 1-0 at 11:54 of the first. Dubois worked below the line to get to puck to Panarin, who found Atkinson in front.
"We worked really well behind the net and working off each other and finding open areas," Atkinson said. "When I'm in the slot and Bread's coming around and no one's one me he's a player that's going to find me. We found a way to get a nice one there and get the floodgates open."

Atkinson doubled the lead at 1:57 of the second off the rush.
Panarin passed to Atkinson at the crease. He settled the puck with the heel of his skate then flipped a backhander past Scott Darling, who made 20 saves.
"Breadman (Panarin) was feeling it where he had that look in his eye where the puck was on his stick and good things were going to happen," Shaw said.
Sebastian Aho cut Columbus lead to 2-1 at 6:05 of the second with a sweeping wraparound to the far post for his sixth goal.
Werenski regained the two-goal lead at 7:22 thanks to the magic of Panarin. He did a spin-o-rama in neutral ice to spot Atkinson entering the zone. He dropped a pass to Werenski for the shot from between the circles.

"Kind of an easy play for me," Werenski said. "I just walked in. Cam dropped it to me and it found its way to the net."
During a Blue Jackets' power play, Alex Wennberg was camped behind the net before skimming a pass to Atkinson in the right circle for a one-timer at 11:20 for a 4-1 lead.
"They're a really fast team," Dubois said of Carolina. "It was a point for us to come out and match their pace and get in front of them, hit them, pin them sometimes to slow them down. We did a good job tonight."

Key moment
The Blue Jackets successfully killed back-to-back minors late in the second. Defenseman Markus Nutivaara went to the bench to get his skate blade repaired after an icing by the Blue Jackets, but Shaw said that added to the irritation when Bjorkstrand tried to change his stick and a delay of game penalty was called on the bench at 14:24 with Columbus up 4-1.
Eight seconds after it expired, Columbus was whistled for too many men.
"We had a couple of big saves by Bob on the penalty kill to get out of it unscathed; 70-80 percent of it I thought was really good," Shaw said. "Some of the mistakes we made were really big. That's when you count on your goalie and I thought he was there for us."
Of note
Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno did not play as he attended to a family matter. … The Blue Jackets went 1 for 5 on the power play; the Hurricanes went 0 for 3. ... The Blue Jacket are 7-2-1 on the road. … Carolina is 2-5-2 in the past nine games. The loss ended a 4-0-2 streak vs. the Blue Jackets.
Next
The Blue Jackets play at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday (7 p.m.; Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports app, 97.1 The Fan).