Carolina Hurricanes, content ‘to just keep playing the way we were,’ rally with seven straight goals, top Columbus Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Carolina Hurricanes, one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference all season, have bigger plans for later in 2022, like perhaps competing for the franchise’s second Stanley Cup championship.

For now, though, they’ll settle for any type of momentum builder they can get, and they began the calendar year with a doozy.

Steven Lorentz and Brady Skjei each scored two goals as Carolina rallied from a 4-0 deficit with seven unanswered goals en route to a thrilling 7-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

The Hurricanes scored four times in a span of 3 minutes, 57 seconds in the third period to overcome a 4-2 deficit. They had five goals in the period.

“It was a weird game, we were down, and I still felt we outplayed them,” Skjei said. “We knew to just keep playing the way we were and the goals would come. And they definitely did.”

Nino Niederreiter, Ethan Bear and Andrei Svechnikov all chipped in with goals as well, as Carolina shut down the Blue Jackets for the final 31 minutes of the game as it mounted the comeback.

“We just tried to do what we could to stop their momentum. Let’s be honest, it was all game. It wasn’t like they ramped it up there. We built a lead, but that’s a big, strong team that they just get the puck sometimes and they have it all night,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “That’s a real good hockey team and they just kept coming.”

Frederik Anderson replaced a struggling Antti Raanta in net for the Hurricanes after the veteran allowed three goals on nine shots. Andersen, the beneficiary of an improved defense in the back half of the game, stopped just eight of nine shots to post the victory.

Gustav Nyquist had a goal and two points in an otherwise forgettable performance from the home team. Zach Werenski, Adam Boqvist and Alexandre Texier also scored for the Blue Jackets before the Hurricanes rallied.

“I think that’s something we can learn from them. No matter what the score was, they kept playing their game,”…