Hurricanes can’t find way to win close one against Blues

To be a playoff team, and the Carolina Hurricanes think they can be one this season, you have to be able to win the close ones at home.

On the road, too. But certainly at home.

The Canes couldn’t do it Friday at PNC Arena. Caught up in a tight game with the St. Louis Blues, the Canes couldn’t make the plays necessary to avoid a 2-1 loss.

“We need to learn, and we haven’t done it yet, to win 1-0, to win 2-1,” Canes forward Justin Williams said. “We haven’t won those games yet.”

It didn’t help that the Canes lost forward Teuvo Teravainen to an upper-body injury early in the second period. That caused line juggling by Canes coach Bill Peters, and Teravainen could have been helpful when the Canes had the games’s only power play midway through the third and the score tied 1-1.

The Blues easily killed off the penalty as the Canes (4-4-1) badly misplayed the puck and couldn’t get off a shot, then took the 2-1 lead on Brayden Schenn’s goal at 10:41.

“That could have been big turning point for us and it was for them,” Williams said. “They killed and scored right after it. That was frustrating for sure.”

It also was frustrating for the Canes to see a good effort by goalie Cam Ward wasted. Ward, in his second start of the season, stopped 32 shots and has 80 saves in his two games as the backup to Scott Darling.

“I thought he was real good, thought he was real subtle in and around the net and cut off a lot of plays with his stick,” Peters said. “I thought he was solid and gave us a chance.”

The Canes’ goal belonged to Jeff Skinner but was more a showcase for Williams, who first caused a Blues turnover. Encountering defenseman Joel Edmundson in the slot, Williams tried to side-step Edmundson with a toe-drag that turned into a perfectly placed pass to Skinner crashing the net to beat goalie Carter Hutton.

“I just ran out of options, really,” Williams said. “I wanted to pass first and they took it away, and then I wanted to shoot and then I wanted to toe-drag, and at the last minute figured I try and get it over (to Skinner). He’s a goal scorer.”

It was Skinner’s sixth of the season, tying the score 1-1 in the second after Dmitrij Jaskin’s goal for the Blues (8-2-1), and giving the home fans in the crowd of 10,069 something to cheer.

The Canes had their chances in their third 2-1 loss of the season -- one of the games an overtime loss to Columbus.

Defenseman Noah Hanifin hit the post three minutes into the third. An inch or two to the right and the Canes would have had a 2-1 lead.

Forward Sebastian Aho, pressing, still without a goal after nine games, was active most of the game in the offensive zone. Hutton nearly allowed an Aho goal in the first off a deflection, then made a hustling save on an Aho shot late in the second.

After streaking up and down the ice in the 6-3 road win Thursday over the Maple Leafs, the Canes found the Blues (8-2-1) waiting for them at the offensive blue line and shooting lanes harder to find. The Blues blocked 28 Canes shots.

By the third, the Canes’ energy level appeared to wane in their third game in four days. The Blues, who had Thursday off after a 5-2 win Wednesday against Calgary, were fresher.

“Any time you deal with travel, customs, in a back-to-back it makes it tough on guys,” Ward said. “That’s when I need to step in and try to hold the fort, to let us get our legs going. … The game was right there for the majority of the night.”

In the closing minutes, Peters wanted to pull Ward for a sixth attacker but the Blues kept the puck in the Canes zone. Ward did not get to the bench until the final 90 seconds.

“I thought it was an even game through 40 (minutes) … and then they kind of got on the attack more so than we did in the third,” Peters said. “We didn’t push back. We tried. I don’t think we mounted much.”

Not enough to win a close one.

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Hurricanes can’t find way to win close one against Blues."