Necas’ overtime goal gives Carolina Hurricanes win over Tampa Bay Lightning
No one knew what to expect out of the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
The Canes were playing their first game in 10 days. They were missing five regulars, all on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list and unavailable. They were playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2020 Stanley Cup champion.
For a long time at PNC Arena, neither team could score as Canes goalie Petr Mrazek and the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy wouldn’t allow it, matching each other with sparkling saves. It took overtime to decide it before the Canes won 1-0 on a goal by Martin Necas at 1:12 of the OT.
“I was really impressed with the way we played,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said on the postgame media call. “We came out hard and for 60 minutes we were good. Playing obviously the best team in the world, we went toe to toe with them.”
Necas, whose speed and quickness makes him dangerous in 3-on-3 overtime, took a pass from Jordan Staal on the give-and-go. He sped to the net past Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson and finally beat Vasilevskiy for the winner.
Necas called it a “beautiful sauce.” That’s what it took, Staal to Necas, to decide a goaltending masterpiece.
Mrazek, smooth and efficient in the crease, finished with 32 saves in his second shutout of the season for the Canes (3-1-0). Vasilevskiy had 34 stops for the Lightning (3-1-1).
“Petr was great tonight,” Brind’Amour said. “He looked like he was on it from the start. Even the grade-A chances they had, he had a bead on it. And look at the guy at the other end. There were some saves there that were ridiculous, too.
“It was one of those exciting games to be a 1-0 game. There was a lot of action.”
The Canes, scheduled to play their first four games on the road this season, last had a game Jan. 18 at Nashville, winning 4-2. But then came four straight postponements as Jaccob Slavin, Teuvo Teravainen, Jesper Fast, Warren Foegele and Jordan Martinook joined Staal on the COVID list.
Staal, who said he tested positive for coronavirus, came off quarantine, returned to practice this week and played more than 19 minutes. The other five remain in the NHL COVID protocol list for now — “Five we really rely on,” Brind’Amour said.
But that meant forward Steven Lorentz could make his NHL debut. Lorentz, who has worked his way from a seventh-round draft pick to an NHL lineup, put in his first shift on the penalty kill and got 14:41 of ice time.
“The kid was great,” Staal said. “I could tell right away he was feeling pretty comfortable and he’s got great speed, and I told him to use his legs and go get pucks. We’ve got some great depth here, and we’ve got guys who are able to step into different roles and excel.”
The Canes last played a game in PNC Arena on Feb. 28, 2020, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. It has been even longer for defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who suffered a broken fibula in January that kept him out the remainder of the regular season.
Returning to play in an empty arena, in a pandemic, was weird, Hamilton said before the game. The Canes players entered the arena to find a large screen filled with fans who were on Zoom, wishing them well.
Mrazek, who faced seven shots in the first, had 13 come his way in the second as the Lightning piled up some long shifts in the Carolina zone. Mrazek made a hustling stop on a Pat Maroon shot in tight and several other sharps in the period, which had some sloppy moments.
Canes personnel moves
The Canes on Thursday recalled forwards Morgan Geekie, Lorentz and Max McCormick and defenseman Jake Bean from the team’s taxi squad. Carolina has recalled forward Sheldon Rempal to the team’s active roster from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Lorentz, a seventh-round draft pick in 2015, was given the honor of leading his teammates out on the ice Thursday for pregame warmups and take a solo lap on the Canes’ end.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 6:49 PM.
