Recap: Canes Fight Back to Snag Point

The Carolina Hurricanes fought back to earn a point against the Columbus Blue Jackets but fell 2-1 in overtime.
Jeff Skinner tied the game at one with just 85 seconds left in regulation to force extra hockey, and Sonny Milano scored his second goal of the game in overtime to give Columbus the extra point.
Here are five takeaways from tonight's game.

One
The Hurricanes were just over a minute away from walking away with no points against a divisional opponent.
Then, Markus Hannikainen attempted a clear of the zone and Skinner leapt in the air to intercept the puck. He settled it on the ice before snapping a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky, the first and only goal the Russian goaltender has allowed in two games this season, to even the score at one and ultimately send the game to overtime.

"[Staal] had good pressure on the guy, so I thought his only option was to come up the middle with it," Skinner said. "Luckily I got a hand on it, it kind of settled down for me and I was able to sneak it five-hole."
Two
Assessing overtime postgame in the locker room, the Canes felt like they left the extra point on the table. Jordan Staal drew a hooking minor on Artemi Panarin, but the Canes were unable to convert on a full two minutes of their 4-on-3 advantage.
"It's been on and off," Staal said of the power play, which was 0-for-3 tonight. "I wouldn't say we're feeling all that great. I don't think the puck has been moving as quick as we'd like or getting the grade-A chances you'd want on the power play. There's definitely improvement to be had there. We need a little more killer instinct."
"That's a tough point to let go," Skinner said. "We had some chances and created a little bit of movement. It just seemed like they did a pretty good job of clogging up the middle. That's where you want to get your shots from. Maybe we sort of settled for outside shots when we could have maybe worked for a better shot, but he made some saves."
Later in overtime, the Hurricanes rushed down the ice on a 3-on-1. Sebastian Aho dished over to Teuvo Teravainen, who then gave it back to Aho for the one-timer. He unfortunately sent it wide, and Milano was there to gather the rebound carom off the end boards, race back the other way and score the game-winner.
"We got a great, glorious scoring chance that we just missed, and they go back the other way with another great scoring chance and find a way to put it in," Staal said. "It was nice to sneak in a point there."
Three
Through 50 minutes of tonight's game, there wasn't much leeway given at either end of the ice. Both Scott Darling and Bobrovsky were standing tall in net and each team was stingy in its own zone.
"There wasn't a lot 5-on-5 either way," head coach Bill Peters said. "There were times we dictated and times they dictated and were heavy in our zone. It was back-and-forth a little bit there. I thought it was even throughout."
Milano broke the scoreless deadlock just past the midway point of the third when he circled around the back of the net and banked a shot off Darling and in.

Four
Through two games in the 2017-18 regular season, what have we learned about the Canes?
"It's a resilient group," Peters said. "A work in progress, obviously. We've only played twice."
"We've got some stick-to-itiveness," Staal said. "We stuck with it these two games and continued to play the right away and assume if we do that we'll get a result. That's been good."
"There's good and bad to take from everything. It's good to come back, tie it up and get a point. Today we probably left a point on the table there in OT," Skinner said. "There's positives and negatives in every game. You try to build off the positives and correct the negatives. It's still early. We've got a big road trip ahead of us, and we want to try to keep building off the positive things in our game."
Five
Nick Foligno caught Brett Pesce with a nasty board in the first period. It was a categorically bad check from the Blue Jackets' captain, as he saw Pesce's numbers the whole way. Pesce was understandably slow to get to his feet and then skated off under his own power to the dressing room, presumably to be tested for a concussion. Pesce returned to game action at the conclusion of the ensuing two-minute power play, though Foligno could have and should have received a stiffer punishment.
"That's a two-minute minor in the NHL these days. It's the same as a little slash. The same value of a penalty as getting two centers kicked out (of a faceoff)," Peters said. "That hit, to me, probably a little more than a two-minute minor I'd think, but it's not my decision."
If the league is looking to protect its players' safety and purge the game of these dangerous and reckless hits, they need to be treated as such.
Up Next
It's time for the Canes to hit the road for their annual State Fair trip, which will take the team through Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Dallas over the span of a week.
"It's nice to get some points and continue to build on it. The group still hasn't played our best," Staal said. "We've got room for lots of improvement."