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Blue Jackets, 'Canes kick off home-and-home set

Nov 4, 2014 - 3:59 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - As the Carolina Hurricanes have gotten healthy, the wins have started to come.

The Columbus Blue Jackets can only hope for the same result on Tuesday night as they try to snap their skid in a meeting with the visiting 'Canes to begin a home-and-home series.

The Blue Jackets have lost five straight and on Saturday played without nine of their regular skaters in a 3-2 loss to New Jersey. Among those missing included starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, Nathan Horton, Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov.

In all, Columbus has lost 39 man games due to injury, but they are expected to have forwards Boone Jenner and Matt Calvert back in action tonight.

Jenner was activated off of injured reserve on Monday and is set for his season debut. The 21-year-old, who posted 16 goals and 29 points in 72 games as a rookie last season, suffered a broken hand in practice on Sept. 27.

Calvert, meanwhile, has been out since Oct. 24 with an upper-body injury, but joined Jenner in returning to practice on Monday.

Columbus could use the help after getting goals from only Nick Foligno and Jack Skille versus the Devils. Anton Forsberg gave up three goals on 29 shots in his NHL debut.

"It is a lot of feelings and all that," said Forsberg. "As a little boy this is everybody's dream."

Columbus also lost defenseman Cody Goloubef to a sprained right knee that is expected to keep him out for six weeks.

Carolina knows the feeling, having lost 34 man games to injury this season. The Hurricanes were without Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner at one point and are still missing Jordan Staal due to a broken right leg.

However, the rest of the roster is healthy and Carolina has responded by winning back-to-back games following a 0-6-2 start.

After blanking Arizona 3-0 on Saturday for their first win, the Hurricanes got past the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Sunday.

Elias Lindholm and Chris Terry had a goal and an assist each, while Victor Rask netted his first career goal.

Cam Ward, coming off a 25-save shutout versus the Coyotes, had 30 saves against the Kings.

"I thought we were really pushing the pace," said Ward. "To be able to beat the defending Stanley Cup champions proves that we can win against any team in this league."

With the healthy bodies, head coach Bill Peters has opted to make Alexander Semin a healthy scratch for the past two games as the winger has notched only two assists and a minus-7 rating over the first eight games.

Semin could return to the lineup tonight after practicing on Monday on a line with Eric Staal and Jiri Tlusty.

Ward will start for Carolina looking for his first career win over Columbus as well as his club's first road victory of the season (0-5-1).

Ward is 0-4-0 with a 3.73 goals against average and .854 save percentage in five career starts versus the Blue Jackets.

Curtis McElhinney will counter in net for Columbus and is 1-2-0 in his career when facing the 'Canes, posting a 3.62 GAA and .859 save percentage in four meetings with three starts.

The Blue Jackets, who visit Carolina on Friday, have won eight of their past 10 versus the Hurricanes. Carolina snapped a four-game series road losing streak in March.