In his first playoff start, Canes goalie makes the most of his opportunity
When the reporters and cameras that surrounded him finally left, Carolina Hurricanes goalie Curtis McElhinney took a deep breath and exhaled.
And for a moment, the usually stoic 11-year veteran let out a smile.
McElhinney, 35, made his first career playoff start on Wednesday night against the Islanders — and helped the Canes win 5-2. McElhinney was thrust into the starting role on April 28 when goalie Petr Mrazek left Game 2 with a lower body injury. His injury is day-to-day, but that opened the door for McElhinney to finally get his chance. McElhinney made the most of his opportunity on Wednesday, stopping 28 of the Islanders’ 30 shot attempts.
“A patient guy,” McElhinney said, describing himself.
The Canes head into Game 4 on Friday at home with a 3-0 series lead and an opportunity to sweep the Islanders for a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.
But that wouldn’t have been possible without McElhinney, who stopped all 17 shots that came his way in the Canes 2-1 win in Game 2.
“You cheer for guys like that. I don’t even care if you like our team or not,” Canes coach Rod Brind-Amour said. “Everybody cheers for that guy because he’s put in his dues, he put in his time and now he finally gets a chance to show it.
“It’s nice to see a guy get his opportunity and it’s nice to see a guy excel.”
It took 11 years for McElhinney to get to this moment. He’s played for seven teams, mostly as a backup goalie. The Hurricanes claimed McElhinney off waivers two days before the start of the season.
He played in 33 regular-season games, saving 91.2 percent of the shots against him. In the playoffs, his save percentage is .957.
“He’s been great all year,” Canes forward Sebastian Aho said. “We knew he was capable to do this.”
McElhinney has played in four playoff games over the course of his career, but never started in the playoffs until Wednesday, when he became the oldest goalie to make his first career start in a playoff game.
He admitted he was a little nervous before the game, but he said his mindset was to make the first save, and make a couple of big saves throughout the game.
He did that and more.
In the second period, with the game tied at 1-1, Islanders’ defenseman Nick Leddy had no one in front of him, except McElhinney. Leddy skated right and attempted to backhand the puck into the net, but McElhinney went down in a near split and stopped it with his left foot. Had McElhinney not made the save, the momentum of the game could have shifted for the Islanders.
“It’s one of those timely saves that you need to come up with at certain points in the game, and tonight it was there,” McElhinney said.
It’s possible this was McElhinney’s final start of the playoffs, as Mrazek could return for Game 4. But he made his mark on Wednesday.
“My ears are still ringing at this point so it’s just an enjoyable thing and something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,” he said.
This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 12:35 AM.