Recap: Power Play Guides Canes to Victory In Columbus

COLUMBUS, OH -Entering the game with an objective of taking fewer penalties than they did Thursday night in Montreal, the Carolina Hurricanes instead found themselves on the other side of the story tonight in Columbus, making good on three of their power play chances in a 5-1 win.

The Man Advantage
After a five-on-five connection between Jesper Fast and Jordan Staal to open up the contest, the Canes then went to the power play well on their next three goals to take control of the game.
The only disruption to the four goal run for Carolina was a Columbus power play goal of their own, but the biggest storyline of the evening was what Carolina did when presented their opportunities.
As a part of the team's 8-for-10 effort at the attacking faceoff dot in the first period, Sebastian Aho's win on a draw allowed Vincent Trocheck to deflect a puck home to give the team a 2-0 lead in the first. Then, from a very similar spot on the ice at the end of the second period, Jordan Staal jammed home a second effort past Joonas Korpisalo to once again extend his team's lead by a pair.
In the third it was Aho striking for one of his own, firing from the high slot to give the Canes their first three goal lead on the night.

There was a sense of timeliness to both the Staal and Aho goals that coupled nicely with their contributions to the scoreboard. The Blue Jackets power play tally that made the game 2-1 in the second period gave them a little bit of life, which then was snatched away by the Hurricanes captain. While the third period push by the home side did not produce any imminent threats, Aho's wrist shot seemed to put the night away, giving Carolina an advantage of three with 12:55 to play.
Andersen The Backbone Once Again
Had it not been for the Hurricanes netminder the power play may not have been presented with an opportunity to become a story in the contest Saturday. In the first 12 minutes of play the Canes had two turnovers in their own end that led to tremendous chances for the Blue Jackets, both of which Frederik Andersen was up to par on.
Including one on talented scorer Patrik Laine, Andersen's fourth start in as many games for his club was the second consecutive in which he allowed just one goal. As mentioned prior, the goal came while shorthanded, just like Thursday night, meaning that the Danish netminder has now gone 147:54 without allowing a five-on-five goal.
With 117 stops on 124 shots faced to date, "Freddie" has been sensational. Additionally, tonight he became the first goaltender in franchise history to start his journey with the team with four consecutive wins.
They Said It
Vincent Trocheckon the team's special teams play:
"Special teams are going to be huge, especially going late in the season and into playoffs. To get off to a hot start, get us a little bit of confidence and help our team win some games, it's great."
Jordan Staal on the play of Frederik Andersen for the team:
"He's off to a great start. There's no better feeling than when you make a big mistake and your goalie bails you out. It's give and take and we're taking a little bit too much from Freddie right now. We'd like to play a little better in front of him and keep those "Grade A" chances to a minimum. He's been] calm, cool, collected, looks good in the net and has made big saves look easy."
***Rod Brind'Amour***sharing his thoughts on the game as a whole:
"I thought the special teams were big. We killed a lot of penalties and got some power play goals. I didn't love our overall five-on-five game, we just had too many turnovers that led to some really good chances for them, but Freddie was great. I mean, it was a good effort though, we did a couple things that I thought were great. We had some hiccups, but, again, Freddie was great."
**What's Next?**
The Canes return to Raleigh early Sunday morning and will now prepare to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs Monday night at PNC Arena.
[Tickets for the contest can be found here.