Yahoo Finance Hurricanes rebound from stinging loss by beating Nashville Predators 4-1
Rod Brind’Amour was disappointed by much of what he saw in the Carolina Hurricanes’ last game, but the coach had to like much of what he saw Thursday.
The Canes did nearly everything right against the Nashville Predators, taking a 4-1 win at PNC Arena with the kind of play Brind’Amour expects and keeping their hold on first place in the Central Division.
Goalie Petr Mrazek was his feisty, competitive self in net. Warren Foegele, Andrei Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck and Sebastian Aho scored goals. The Canes’ penalty killers got the job done.
The Predators came into PNC Arena off a 7-2 beating of the Tampa Bay Lightning, having won 13 of their past 15 games despite a host of injuries. But they ran into a Canes team smarting from a 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday that soured everyone, with Brind’Amour also pointing a finger at himself and saying he didn’t coach a good game.
One blip for the Canes: on a third-period power play, they mishandled the puck and allowed Erik Haula to score shorthanded on a breakaway against his former team. But Aho later scored on the power play, getting his 18th goal off a Trocheck pass as Svechnikov also earned an assist.
Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa made his Canes debut after the trade Monday from Anaheim. He started the game and had the fans in the arena roaring when he flattened the Preds’ Mikael Granlund with a hit in the neutral zone.
The Canes led 1-0 after the first period and 3-0 after two. Foegele scored off a Jordan Staal pass late in the first, and Svechnikov then scored 14 seconds into the second period.
Svechnikov backhanded a shot past goalie Juuse Saros, who has been on-point in a torrid stretch of games. It was the 11th of the season for the winger, who later in the period tangled with defensman Mattias Ekholm in front of the Preds net.
Trocheck followed up his own rebound for his 17th of the season, beating Saros with a tight-angle shot.
Second period: Canes add to lead
It took the Canes almost the entire first period to score. They needed 14 seconds in the second to score their second goal and have added a third for a 3-0 lead.
Andrei Svechnikov scored his 11th of the season, crossing through the slot, taking a pass from Dougie Hamilton and beating goalie Juuse Saros with a quick backhander. Saros denied Svechnikov a goal in the first, gloving a backhander, but couldn’t stop him the second time.
It was the first goal in eight games for Svechnikov. Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin had the assists after Jordan Staal won the faceoff to start the second period.
Vincent Trocheck then made it 3-0, taking a shot from the right circle that Saros stopped but collecting the rebound and ripping a sharp-angle shot. Trocheck’s 17th of the season was unassisted and came at 5:34 of the period.
Svechnikov later tangled with Mattias Ekholm in front of the Preds net, knocking Ekholm down in the crease. The two took a few whacks at each other before they fell to the ice. Ekholm later put Svechnikov in a headlock as the gloves were dropped but no punches thrown.
The Canes outshot the Preds 14-6 in the second. After having four scoring chances in the first, the Canes had 11 in the second (naturalstattrick.com).
First period: Foegele scores
Just when it seemed the first period would end scoreless, Petr Mrazek, Nino, Niederreiter, Jordan Staal and Warren Foegele teamed up for a score to give the Canes a 1-0 lead after the first.
Mrazek attempted to clear the puck and Niederreiter got a piece as it left the zone. Staal chased it down on the left wing in the Preds zone, whipping a pass back across the crease that glanced off the stick of Saros as Foegele was breaking in. Foegele backhanded the puck in with 1:34 left in the first for his ninth of the season and first in seven games.
Both team had six shots in the opening period as both were tenacious in the neutral zone and the offensive flow choppy. Mrazek had some active moments around his crease, once having the puck bounce off the post and almost land in the net before defenseman Brett Pesce knocked it away at the post.
Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa played his first game for the Canes and made his presence flt, certainly to Mikael Granlund of the Preds. Hakanpaa sent Granlund to the ice with a neutral-zone hit.
The Canes had eight giveaways in the period and at times were bogged down in their zone.
Game setup
It’s posted on a wall at the Hurricanes’ practice facility at Wake Competition Center and it’s hard to miss: “Our
standard is the standard.”
Under Rod Brind’Amour as head coach, it has been a very high standard. It has been one usually met in games, competitively, as Brind’Amour often has cited a good team effort even after a loss.
That standard was not met in the Canes’ last game, an awful 3-1 loss Monday against the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena. The Canes were 14-2-4 at home before that game but played like they were 2-14-4, in a game in which Brind’Amour said only goalie James Reimer played well. It also came after a 5-4 shootout loss to Detroit.
The Canes (27-10-4) will look to rectify things Thursday as they host the Nashville Predators in the first of two games -- get back to their standard of play.
“We definitely got away from it the last two games,” forward Jordan Martinook said Thursday after the morning skate. “It’s no secret what makes us successful. We need to get back to it and it starts with work ethic from everybody and obviously the skill takes over from there.
“We definitely need to get back to way we were playing. We’re coming down the stretch here and we want to be playing good going into the playoffs, not going the other way. So we definitely need to turn it around here.”
The Predators (24-19-1) have won their last two games, ripping Tampa Bay 7-2 on Tuesday, and 13 of the last 15 as they hold the fourth playoff position in the Central Division. Goalie Juuse Saros, who will start Thursday and has won hsi last five, is 12-2-0 with a 1.38 goals-against average and .955 save percentage in his last 15 appearances.
The lineup
Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa will make his Canes debut and will be paired Jake Bean, who described the new addition Thursday as “the nicest guy in the world.”
Brind’Amour isn’t counting on Hakanpaa being nice on the ice. He wants the 6-5 D-man using his long reach to his advantage and be positionally sound, but he also expects Hakanpaa to body-up on people and be tough in the defensive zone.
“It’s easy to work with him right away,” Bean said. “There’s been no hitches so far. Obviously we haven’t played a game yet.”
Goalie Petr Mrazek will be the Canes’ starter, making his eighth appearance of the season and his fourth since returning from his thumb injury.
Forwards Brock McGinn (upper-body injury) and Teuvo Teravainen (concussion) continue to be sidleined. Brind’Amour said the hope was that McGinn might return this month.
