Brandon Saad’s natural hat trick ends Hurricanes’ playoff hopes

Fan Appreciation Night at PNC Arena turned into the Brandon Saad show.

The Columbus winger scored three consecutive goals for his first career hat trick, erasing an early Carolina lead and catapulting the Blue Jackets to a 5-1 win Saturday in the Hurricanes’ penultimate home game of the 2015-16 season.

The night was billed a celebration of the fans’ commitment to the team, but instead the loss eliminated Carolina from the playoff race, marking the seventh straight season the franchise has missed the postseason.

“We always believed in ourselves and we kept [the playoff] hopes alive for a long time here, even after the trading deadline after we lost three of our best players,” said goalie Eddie Lack, who stopped 22 out of 27 shots in the loss.

Carolina carried play in the first period, outshooting Columbus 16-6. But much like Thursday’s game against the Rangers, the Hurricanes were outplayed in the second.

“They took advantage of some turnovers and we never got going again,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said.

Saad, who tied the game in the first by stealing a Jay McClement pass in the Carolina zone and beating Lack over his glove on a breakaway at 14:17, wasn’t done after the opening frame.

He got his second goal of the night 6:36 into the second. Rookie Sonny Milano, in his second NHL game, cruised around the Carolina net and fed a perfect pass in the slot to Saad, who one-timed the puck past Lack.

The Columbus winger completed the natural hat trick 12 minutes later, tapping in an Alexander Wennberg pass right in front of the net to get his 28th goal of the year and give Columbus a 3-1 lead at 18:43.

A 5-on-3 power play goal by Boone Jenner with 0.1 seconds left — his 30th of the season — gave the Blue Jackets a three-goal cushion heading into the third period.

But unlike Thursday vs. the Rangers, there wasn’t a third-period comeback in store for the Hurricanes.

The Blue Jackets muddied up the game in the third, and when Oliver Bjorkstrand scored 9:21 into the period, any hopes of a rally ended.

“That was not our hockey, not Canes hockey,” center Jordan Staal said. “It wasn’t something to be proud of those last two periods.”

Columbus’ win helped them avoid a season sweep by the Hurricanes, winning the teams’ fourth and final matchup after Carolina took the first three.

Jeff Skinner had Carolina’s lone goal, opening the scoring at 8:53 of the first by getting his team-leading 28th goal of the season. Skinner maneuvered into the zone, scooted around Columbus defenseman Cody Goloubef, and beat Joonas Korpisalo on the stick side with a wrist shot.

But Carolina’s offense was absent for much of the rest of the night, and they wouldn’t get another past the Columbus netminder. The Blue Jackets came out with a purpose in the second, and the Hurricanes couldn’t match their intensity.

“We stopped moving our feet, and it’s tough to make plays when you’re standing still,” Skinner said. “We just didn’t move our feet enough in the second.”

While Saad was scoring his trifecta of goals, the Hurricanes were barely registering shots on Korpisalo. It took 7:31 for Carolina to get its first shot of the second period, then until the 18-minute mark to get their second. Forty-three seconds later Saad got his third, and a lone hat fell to the ice in celebration.

“It got away from us for sure,” Peters said. “It was 1-1 after 20, and we thought it was going to continue to go that way without probably putting in the same amount of work as we did in the first 20.”

The loss confirmed what seemed inevitable the past couple weeks: the Hurricanes would have another early summer break, hopeful the progress made this season will snap their postseason drought.

“We’ve been building a team that’s hard to play against and playing hard every night,” Staal said. “We always want to consistently do that, and tonight wasn’t the night.”

The Hurricanes have three games remaining this season. They head to Boston for a game Tuesday, then return to Raleigh for the home finale Thursday against Montreal. Carolina closes out the 2015-16 campaign Saturday in Florida.

Notes

• Carolina lost the special teams battle, going 0-for-2 on the power play while allowing one goal — Jenner’s 5-on-3 tally with just a tenth of a second left on the clock in the second period — on four Columbus extra-man opportunities.

• Victor Rask earned his first assist since March 8 on Skinner’s goal, his 26th helper of the season. He now has six points in his last six games. Jaccob Slavin earned the other assist, his fourth in six games. His 17 assists tie him with fellow Hurricanes defenseman Noah Hanifin for the fourth-most assists by rookie defensemen this season.

• Mac McCaughan, frontman of Chapel Hill indie rock mainstays Superchunk and co-founder of Merge Records, performed during both intermissions with his solo band, the Non-Believers.

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