Tough start, strong finish: Hurricanes hit milestones in comeback win over Blue Jackets

There was a lot to talk about Thursday after the Carolina Hurricane stormed to a 7-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Goalie Frederik Andersen picked up his 300th career victory.

Winger Seth Jarvis, with two goals and two assists, had his first career four-point game.

The Canes, after a miserable first period at Lenovo Center, scored five times and had 24 shots in the second.

Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, earning the nickname “Sniper” from Jarvis, scored his fourth goal in the past three games.

And there was Shayne Gostisbehere. The Canes defenseman became a father for the first time Thursday morning with the birth of his son, Dax, then was in the lineup Thursday night and playing 19 minutes to help the Canes (30-16-3) win a fourth straight game.

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said not much had to be said after the first period, which had the Blue Jackets snatch a 2-0 lead while the Canes mismanaged the puck and seemingly had a lack of focus.

“Actually, in a situation like that where it was not a good start and really bad mental breakdowns on a couple of goals, I don’t have to say anything,” Brind’Amour said. “Everybody knows.

“Some nights, you know when you have to say a little more. I think that one was pretty obvious and I’m glad in the way we responded, that’s for sure.”

Building momentum

The Canes buzzed around goalie Daniil Tarasov, keeping the puck in the zone and peppering him with shots. Jarvis scored the Canes’ first goal, on the power play, off a crisp feed from Sebastian Aho, who had a goal and two assists in the game.

After four straight games without a power-play goal, the Canes got one.

“It has been a real rough ride for us, so it was nice to get one and get a little of our swagger back,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis then set up Eric Robinson for a goal off the rush as Andersen also earned an assist. Just like that, Carolina had erased the Blue Jackets’ 2-0 first-period lead built on goals by Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko.

“We always have confidence in ourselves and especially the way we’ve been playing the past three, four games,” Jarvis said. “We knew the start wasn’t great but it was going to come. And that’s what happened.”

Stamina, goaltending tested

The Canes were just getting started. Blake, shaking off some poor play in the first, scored his 11th of the season, then forced a Columbus turnover and set up Aho for a one-timer and 4-2 lead.

Jordan Staal then was called for Carolina’s first penalty, but that all ended well for Carolina. After the Canes killed off the penalty, Staal jumped out of the box and jumped Columbus defenseman Ivan Provorov from behind, knocking him off the puck and jump-starting a two-on-one rush that ended with Jarvis’ pass to Jordan Martinook for Carolina’s fifth consecutive goal of the period – – the eventual game-winner.

“He kind of caught the guy sleeping and kick-started the play,” Jarvis said of Staal.

The arena was rumbling at that point, but the Blue Jackets recovered. James van Riemsdyk and then Dmitri Voronkov each scored on deflections to pull Columbus within a goal before the wild, wide open period finally ended – seven goals on the board – and everyone could catch their collective breath.

Kotkaniemi scored in the third for a 6-4 lead after Martin Necas won a puck battle in the Columbus zone to pick up his second assist of the game.

For Andersen, it his second start since returning from his knee injury that kept him out since late October. The big man, who won at Chicago this week, made his first start at home since the season opener against Tampa Bay.

Andersen became the second-fastest NHL goalie to reach 300 career wins, behind only Andrei Vasilevskiy of Tampa Bay — Andersen in 501 games and Vasilevskiy in 490.

“It’ll make a long season a little more memorable,” Andersen said.