Marchenko scores twice, Blue Jackets defeat Hurricanes in shootout

COLUMBUS -- Kirill Marchenko scored twice, and Sean Monahan had three assists when the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

Adam Fantilli had the deciding goal in the fourth round and Elvis Merzlikins stopped three of four Carolina attempts.

“It's a great result,” Marchenko said. “I think everybody wants to win (in) three periods, but it's a great win. Great comeback and gives confidence for us, like everybody play hard today, and it's awesome. Everybody enjoyed today.”

Dmitri Voronkov had a goal and an assist, and Zach Werenski had an assist to extend his home point streak to 13 games for the Blue Jackets (16-16-6), who have won three of four. Merzlikins made 33 saves.

Ty Smith, Jack Roslovic and Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored, and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes (23-13-2), who have lost three of four. Pyotr Kochetkov made 25 saves.

“We were a little sloppy from early on,” Kotkaniemi said. “Forecheck was not great very much. That's not the way we want to come out in the road games. We need to figure out what's going on in the road games right now. We need a good start in every game.”

Marchenko gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 4:48 of the first period. He took a cross-ice pass from Monahan to the left circle and put in a wrist shot to the upper-right corner.

Denton Mateychuk, in his fourth NHL game, had the secondary assist for his first career point.

Smith tied it 1-1 at 9:59 with a power-play goal that deflected off Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov, then the left post. It was his first goal in his second game this season since being recalled from Chicago of the American Hockey League.

Marchenko’s second goal of the game put the Blue Jackets back ahead 2-1 at 15:43 after Kochetkov got tangled up and fell into the net, leaving Marchenko to score from deep in the right circle.

“Wonderful sign, obviously moving forward, that we've handled adversity up to this point and now you're going to have to handle a lot more, right?” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “But to do it, that team, such a good hockey club like Carolina, is so good, put so much heat on us.

“We didn't handle it in areas, but at the end of the day, we get the job done. And, yeah, we were resilient. We stayed the course.”

Roslovic tied it 2-2 at 5:47 of the second period with a redirect at the goalmouth of a Seth Jarvis pass. The former Blue Jackets forward has 17 goals this season.

Kotkaniemi gave the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead at 8:18 off a turnover with Eric Robinson absorbing a check and feeding him between the circles for a backhander.

Voronkov tied it 3-3 at 4:58 of the third period with a power-play goal from the right side that banked off the skate of Jarvis.

“The first two goals were kind of just weird,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We break a stick and we go to the bench to get one, that leaves the guy wide open. It's just unfortunate.

“Second one, we run our goalie over. So, you give them two goals, essentially, that's tough to make up and we came back, had a lead, and then take a bad penalty and then another bank went off our foot, just some weird goals tonight that cost us.”

The Blue Jackets also defeated the Hurricanes in a shootout at home on Nov. 23, 5-4.

“Any team in this league can win on any night, but I think our mindset is to come in, it doesn't matter who we're playing or what the situation is, we're going out there trying to get two points,” Monahan said.

NOTES: With his second goal, Marchenko set the Blue Jackets record for most points in the month of December with 19 (seven goals, 12 assists) in 16 games. Artemi Panarin had 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in 2017. … Werenski has 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) during his home point streak. He is the second defenseman in the past 30 years in the NHL to have a streak that long after Mike Green (14 games in 2009-10). … Werenski set the franchise record with 11 shots on goal. … Roslovic extended his point streak to five games (four goals, three assists).