The Canes raced out to a 3-0 lead after the first period and cruised home to a 5-1 win over Columbus. The win put the Hurricanes into the playoffs for the 8th consecutive season. Logan Stankoven scored twice. Alexander Nikishin registered his first NHL shorthanded goal. And Andrei Svechnikov's 3rd period goal extended Carolina's streak to 8 straight with at least one power play goal. Carolina is 12 for their 25 with the man advantage during the run. The penalty kill went 3 for 3 and has now erased 19 of the last 20 enemy power plays. Frederik Andersen made 9 saves in the win.

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The Canes scored 3 power play goals and Brandon Bussi made 23 saves as they beat the Blue Jackets in Columbus, 5-2. The win pushes the Hurricanes to the 100 point mark for the 4th time in the last 5 seasons and lowers their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to 3. In addition, Carolina has a magic number of 7 to win the Metropolitan Division for the first time in 3 years. Shayne Gostisbehere, Logan Stankoven and Andrei Svechnikov each scored power play goals and Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and three assists as he set a career high with his 40th helper and tied his career best mark for points in a season with 64. Among Bussi's 25 saves were several glorious pad saves on Marchenko and Sean Monahan.

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For the second time in three games the Canes lost a game that they probably should have won. But, in each, they could not adequately solve Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes and ended up on the losing end. Last Tuesday in Montreal, the Hurricanes scored the first 2 goals and had more than 60% of the high danger scoring chances only to lose 5-2. Sunday, at Lenovo Center, it was more egregious as the Hurricanes piled up 100 shot attempts and outchanced the Habs by nearly 3 to 1 only to come away with 1 goal. Andre Svechnikov scored Carolina's only goal, his 26th -- on a 1st period power play -- that snapped a 5 game goal drought. Freddie Andersen didn't allow a bad goal, and made some very good saves, but has stopped just 29 of 36 shots in going 0-2-0 over his last two outings.