*Photo from the Raleigh News and Observer*
It was a bounce back game like this that was necessary. Brady Skjei had a goal and an assist, Jesperi Kotkaniemi had two goals and an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Winnipeg Jets with a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night in Raleigh.
Playing after news that Andrei Svechnikov will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, the Hurricanes got a bounce back win after being shut out in both of their last two games. They moved ahead of the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division and are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games.
Kotkaniemi said after the game that "The games haven't really gone our way the past couple before this one, and then tough news this morning. So, it was just good to get a win, and a big win for 'Svechy' too. He's a big piece of this team, and we're going to miss him for sure."
Jaccob Slavin scored the only goal of the first period, making it 1-0 Hurricanes after 20 minutes. Dylan DeMelo tied the game for the Jets just 19 seconds into the second period on his 4th goal of the season. Skjei then scored 58 seconds into the second before Kotkaniemi scored, making the score 3-1 Hurricanes after two periods.
The Jets cut the deficit to 3-2 when Nikolaj Ehlers scored 4:27 into the 3rd period with assists from Brenden Dillon and Blake Wheeler. Jack Drury then scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-2 Hurricanes on the eventual game winning goal. Nino Niederreiter scored for the Jets and Kotkaniemi scored for the Hurricanes to make it a 5-3 final.
Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour gave his thoughts on the game, saying that "Of the last three games, that's probably the least amount of scoring chances of any of them. It was probably our worst game too, of all of them. It wasn't a great game. We didn't play great, but we responded."
Getting the start in goal for the Hurricanes was Frederik Andersen, who did his job and picked up a win. Andersen stopped 21 of the 24 shots the Jets sent at him, good for a .875 save percentage. His record improved to 17-7-0.
It was David Rittich in net for the Jets, who took the loss against the Hurricanes to fall to 9-7-1 in 20 games on the season. Rittich turned aside 20 out of the 24 shots on goal the Hurricanes had, recording a .833 save percentage.
Winnipeg head coach Rick Bowness said of the loss that "Overall, it was the best game we played on the road trip. We held a high shot volume team to 25 shots. The team was really, really good, so we're really happy with that."
Up next, the Jets return home for a Thursday night showdown against the Boston Bruins, with Connor Hellebuyck lined up to start. Andersen is the projected starter for the Hurricanes on Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Comments
Post a Comment