Hurricanes top Blue Jackets in overtime, maintain Central Division lead

Dougie Hamilton had just scored the winning goal in overtime, thought about a celebration, thought better of it, and instead headed to Alex Nedeljkovic.

And it was a big weekend for Nedeljkovic. The Carolina Hurricanes goalie proposed to his girlfriend on Friday, then took the ice Saturday night to not only beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 at PNC Arena, but notch his first NHL point in doing so.

With the overtime approaching its final minute, Nedeljkovic said he spotted someone in a red jersey open in the neutral zone and behind the Blue Jackets. He quickly passed the puck off the right boards and directly to Hamilton — that open red jersey — for a breakaway.

“I didn’t get as much on it as I wanted but he made a great move to finish it,” Nedeljkovic said.

Hamilton beat goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a slick backhand shot. He immediately wheeled toward Nedeljkovic, who was being swarmed by teammates.

“It can’t get much better than that, other than scoring yourself,” Nedeljkovic said after the game.

Nedeljkovic, a good puck-handler who isn’t bashful in playing the puck, has scored a goal before in his hockey career. He also was credited with an assist this season with the Canes, only to have a scoring change take it away. But this assist counted.

“I thought (Columbus) did a good job of really not giving me too many opportunities to play the puck tonight, so it was nice to get one there in overtime when things were a little bit more open, and we were able to capitalize on it,” Nedeljkovic said.

Goals were hard to come by this night as the Blue Jackets (16-25-11), looking to finish out an injury-filled and mostly miserable season, pushed hard against the Canes (34-10-7), the Central Division leader.

Max Domi gave Columbus a 1-0 lead three minutes into the game, banging a rebound past Nedeljkovic. And the Blue Jackets nearly made it 2-0, only to have defenseman Jaccob Slavin take away an open net by going down to block a shot.

“He’s doing whatever he can to win and help out, and kind of recognizes the guy was all alone and he just sells out and makes an unbelievable save,” Nedeljkovic said.

Teuvo Teravainen tied the score with 1:16 left in the first with his second goal in as many games, unleashing a shot from the top of the slot off a Sebastian Aho pass. Aho extended his point streak to seven games with that helper.

But that was it as Nedeljkovic and Merzlikins took care of the rest. The Blue Jackets had 1:43 of a 5-on-3 power-play advantage in the third, but the Canes’ penalty killers gamely kept it a 1-1 game. Brett Pesce blocked a Domi shot. Slavin and Jordan Staal kept knocking away pucks.

“Those guys are fearless. It was impressive to watch,” Hamilton said. “It’s so fearless for them to basically play goalie and put themselves in front of those pucks.”

Nedeljkovic and Merzlikins each finished with 31 saves as Nedeljkovic earned his 14th win.

The Blue Jackets, playing their final road game of the season, were allowed to fly in and out of Raleigh on Saturday. They have several players injured and forward Patrik Laine was unable to play because of an illness.

“The bottom teams in our division are hard teams to play,” Hamilton said. “They’re not easy games where they’re high-scoring. With those teams that aren’t in the playoffs in our division, all the games have been that way. We’ve been in a lot of close games, what we call grind games.”

This was another one.

But Nedeljkovic made a pass. Hamilton scored a goal. And the Canes earned another two points.

Stars of the month

Aho had a big April while Canes went 10-2-4, scoring six goals with 12 assists. That earned him an accolade Saturday: Central Division star of the month.

Aho had four multi-point games and three game-winning goals in April, and finished the month on a six-game point streak (which he extended to seven Saturday).

Johnna Sharpe, Wake County chief operating officer, was named the star of the month in the Central Division. Sharpe has been among the local leaders in the fight against COVID-19 and among those developing and implementing vaccination sites including PNC Arena’s mass vaccination drive-through clinic.

Goalie signings

The Canes announced Saturday they had signed goaltenders Pyotr Kochetkov and Eetu Makiniemi each to two-year, entry-level contracts.

The deal will pay Kochetkov $842,500 at the NHL level or $70,000 at the AHL level, and he will receive a signing bonus of $185,000. Makiniemi’s deal pays $842,500 in 2021-22 and $892,500 in 2022-23 at the NHL level or $70,000 at the AHL level, with a signing bonus of $185,000.

Kochetkov, 21, was taken in the second round, 36th overall, in the 2019 NHL Draft. He played 10 Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) games with Vityaz and Nizhny Novgorod in 2020-21, posting a 2-5-1 record with a 2.65 goals-against average,

Makiniemi, 22, was drafted by Carolina in the fourth round, 104th overall, in 2017. He appeared in 34 Liiga games with Ilves of the Finnish league in 2020-21, with a 13-14-7 record, 2.59 GAA, .907 save percentage and two shutouts