ANAHEIM, Calif. – Derick Brassard scored his second goal with 1:05 left in overtime, and the Columbus Blue Jackets snapped their six-game skid with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
Jeff Carter scored the tying power-play goal in his return from a 10-game absence with a separated shoulder for the Blue Jackets, who finally won in the finale of their six-game road trip. The NHL's worst team rallied impressively from a third-period deficit in its first game since an apparent clock malfunction possibly cost them a point in a 3-2 loss up the I-5 freeway in Los Angeles two nights ago.
Teemu Selanne scored his 654th and 655th career goals for the Ducks, who have lost two straight home games in discouraging fashion after a 9-1-1 run through most of January.
Moments after Selanne barely missed the net with an overtime shot, Brassard took the puck away from Cam Fowler in the Columbus end and skated the length of the ice to beat Jonas Hiller, who stopped 18 shots.
Curtis Sanford made 33 saves for the Blue Jackets (14-32-6), who still sit 11 points behind 29th-place Edmonton in the overall NHL standings. But Columbus didn't pout after Los Angeles' Drew Doughty beat them with a goal in the final second two nights earlier, an instant after the clock appeared to stop at Staples Center.
Columbus' comeback erased another big game for Selanne. The 41-year-old Finnish Flash tore up a familiar foil in his fourth multigoal game of the season, giving him 40 points in 35 career meetings with Columbus — including two goals in the Blue Jackets' visit to Honda Center last month.
Selanne has been Anaheim's leading scorer all year long, and his goals gave him 1,389 career points, 22nd-most in NHL history. His 655 goals are 13th in league history and just one behind Brendan Shanahan, who needed 224 more games to reach his mark.
The Ducks went ahead less than 2 minutes in when Lubomir Visnovsky's hard shot leaked behind Sanford. Selanne sprawled onto the ice and tapped it home for the 17th goal of the season.
Columbus spent much of the second period short-handed, but the NHL's worst penalty kill shut down Anaheim's middle-of-the-pack power play three straight times. Brassard evened it late in the period, capitalizing on a defensive breakdown and a long rebound allowed by Hiller to score his eighth goal.
Brassard, who improved his rating to minus-18 with the goal, has eight points in 13 games after managing just 10 in the Jackets' first 31 games.
Selanne put the Ducks back ahead on their fourth power play of the period, expertly burying a one-timer on a slick pass from Corey Perry under Sanford's arm. Perry's assist was the MVP's first point in five games.
But Columbus evened it again on a power play early in the third period, with Carter easily backhanding home a loose puck during a power play for his 11th goal. Carter hadn't played since getting hurt in Anaheim on Jan. 8 on a big check by Francois Beauchemin.
NOTES: LW Jason Blake returned to the Ducks' lineup after missing two games with an undisclosed foot injury. ... Columbus C Ryan Johansen missed his second straight game with an illness, but D Marc Methot returned after missing two games with an illness. ... Before the game, Anaheim reassigned C Mark Bell and RW Kyle Palmieri to its AHL affiliate in Syracuse. Bell, who hadn't played in the NHL in four years before his recall last month, went scoreless in five games with the Ducks.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.