Johansen's shootout goal leads Blue Jackets over Canes 4-3

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Ryan Johansen was skating about as slowly as he could when he took the Blue Jackets' final attempt in a shootout with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Then he found his opening.

Johansen went with his forehand to sneak the puck past Cam Ward, giving Columbus a 4-3 win road win Tuesday and keeping the Hurricanes in last place in the Metropolitan Division.

Scott Hartnell had two goals while Rene Bourque added the other for the Blue Jackets. Artem Ansimov had two assists.

''I was worried my dry gloves weren't going to come out there for a second,'' Johansen said with a smile. ''(Ward) is a great goalie. I just try and be patient and wait to see a couple options, maybe, and hopefully it goes in. Coming down slow works for me.''

Justin Faulk had a goal and two assists for Carolina. Victor Rask and Eric Staal also scored for the Hurricanes, who led 3-1 after the first period.

Columbus, which has won two of its last three games after a five-game regulation losing streak, held onto seventh place in the Metro Division.

''The power play was big,'' said Columbus coach Todd Richards, whose team's goals were all on the power play against a team that had had the best penalty kill in the league. ''I was disappointed in the way we ended the first period, giving up a goal late, but the guys rebounded and came out with some better focus.

''We had some mistakes in the second period, but again we found a way to win the hockey game. Too many times this year it's been the other way around.''

Carolina had won the teams' first two meetings, 4-2 on the road on Nov. 4 and 3-2 in overtime in Raleigh on Nov. 7.

Ward and Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky each had 29 saves.

''They got better and built a game on the road, competed better and took advantage of their power plays,'' Carolina coach Bill Peters said. ''I thought we stopped working. We had a bunch of power plays after it was 3-2 we could have taken advantage of. I didn't think we did a good job of staying with it.''

Faulk got the Hurricanes on the board just 36 seconds in, beating Bobrovsky from the top of the right circle following Nathan Gerbe's pass after Jordan Staal won a faceoff.

Rask doubled the lead just 7 seconds into a power play at 12:47, scoring from the center of the right circle with Faulk on the helper.

Columbus cut it to 2-1 on a power play at 18:05, when Bourque redirected Cam Atkinson's feed past a screened Ward from the doorstep.

''The first (Carolina) goal was actually my fault, so it was good to battle back and get the boys going,'' Bourque said.

Eric Staal made it 3-1 on a power play at 19:50, redirecting a Ryan Murphy one-timer that came from the right point. Faulk got the second assist.

But Hartnell cut the lead in half on a power-play goal at 2:21 of the second, picking up the loose puck in the crease and sliding it past Ward glove side with Kevin Connauton on the assist.

Hartnell tied it on another power play at 6:10 of the third with Ansimov on the primary assist.

NOTES - Evgeny Romasko, the first Russian referee in the NHL, was calling his second game. ... The Hurricanes have scored more than one power-play goal in four of their last nine games after doing it just six times in the season's first 56 games. ... Carolina, which was starting a three-game homestand, will host Dallas on Thursday night. ... Columbus is at Detroit on Thursday. ... Hurricanes D Jack Hillen (concussion) missed his second straight game. Carolina LW Chris Terry and D John-Michael Liles were healthy scratches. ... Blue Jackets LW Nick Foligno was out with illness while D Justin Falk was a healthy scratch. RW David Clarkson (oblique) missed his third straight game and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. ... The teams' final meeting of the season is Sunday at Columbus.