Carolina Hurricanes treat fans at PNC Arena to 5-2 win over Red Wings
There were no tailgates outside PNC Arena on Thursday. But there were fans in the building for the Carolina Hurricanes for the first time this season, making for a memorable night.
There was noise. There was energy. There was life, a sense of some normalcy during the pandemic. Masks were mandatory, the excitement level optional — and it was pretty high much of the game.
The Canes weren’t always at their best in their first home game after a five-game road trip, but they took charge in the third period for a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. And the postgame Storm Surge returned, this night a simple raising of the sticks by the players as a salute to front-line workers during the pandemic and to the returning fans.
“They were cheering, doing their best. It was nice to see,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, who earned his 100th win, said of the fans after the game. “At the end there when we started getting going there was definitely some emotion in the building, so we gave them something to cheer about.”
On a night when the Canes’ Andrei Svechnikov played against his older brother, Evgeny, for the first time, No. 37 for Carolina was clearly inspired. He scored the Canes’ first goal, on a power play, assisted on another and was fully engaged, on the move and pushing the play, and especially in the third on Jordan Staal’s line.
“I think he was excited. You could tell obviously with his play, as well, that he wanted to win,” Staal said. “He’s a guy who wont take ‘no’ for an answer. To be against his brother I’m sure was icing on the cake for him.”
Staal had a goal and two assists in being named the game’s first star, and Martin Necas, Jesper Fast and Nino Niederreiter each had a goal and assist for the Canes (16-6-1), who have won four in a row. That offset a pair of goals by Filip Zadina of the Wings (7-16-3), the second on a power-play.
Necas had the most timely score of the game for the Canes. The winger tied it 2-2 with 1:15 left in the second period, blistering a top-shelf shot that set the tone for the Canes’ big push early in the third, when Staal and then Fast scored in the first three minutes.
“We just decided we needed to get to our game,” Brind’Amour said. “We’d been fighting it the whole night and were fortunate to be tied going into the third.”
Niederreiter had an empty-net goal after the Wings pulled goalie Jonathan Bernier with more than five minutes left in regulation.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, making his seventh start, picked up his fourth victory. Of his 33 saves, 11 came in the Canes’ big third,
Teuvo Teravainen, who has been sidelined with a concussion, was back in the lineup and on a line with Sebastian Aho and Svechnikov.
The announced attendance was 2,924. That was enough to enhance the game atmosphere. It also was a start.
Staal’s goal, his eighth, came 45 seconds into the third and gave the Canes their first lead of the game. Staal was in the right place between the circles when a rebound popped out to him.
Fast’s goal, his third, came at 2:50 after Staal passed to Svechnikov, who then zipped a pass to Fast breaking in for the 4-2 lead.
While the crowd didn’t pack the arena, all the fans stayed to see the Storm Surge. And the players properly saluted them.
“It was almost like a playoff game compared to what we were playing with before,” Staal said. “It was great. They were loud. It definitely had some new life in the building the boys were excited about.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 2:26 PM.
