Hurricanes surge in second period, beat Florida Panthers 4-2 in key Central matchup
Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour called it a gutsy win, and no one could argue with him.
The Canes beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 Thursday, overcoming a host of penalties and an injury to forward Jordan Martinook to take a two-point lead in the Central Division.
The Panthers came into the game, the seventh in the season series, with just one overtime win over the Hurricanes and had a “enough-is-enough” look. Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg dropped the gloves early to fight Cedric Paquette, and Aleksander Barkov scored the first of his two goals for a first-period lead to further liven up the BB&T Center.
But the Canes weathered it all. They denied the Panthers on eight of their nine power plays, allowing only a 5-on-3 goal by Barkov in the third.
The Hurricanes’ Nino Niederreiter scored on the power play and Sebastian Aho had two shorthanded goals as the Canes had the upper hand on special teams.
Aho’s first came on a pretty play, Martin Necas stealing the puck and the two having some passing fun on a two-on-none rush before Aho buried the shot. His second, his 20th goal of the season, came after the Panthers pulled Sergei Bobrovsky for an extra attacker on a late power play.
“We found a way to win,” Niederreiter said. “Five on five there wasn’t much going on. We battled through that game and it wasn’t pretty. We took way too many penalties, but we got under their skin a little bit. It was definitely a big win.”
The Canes (31-10-5) and Panthers (30-13-5) were tied with 65 points, although the Canes had two games-in-hand and a better winning percentage. The Canes now lead the Panthers by two points and Tampa Bay by three.
“We’re after first place and you can tell, you can feel it,” Niederreiter said. “We’re coming down to the wire and everyone wants to take that first place to make sure you start (the playoffs) at home.”
One major concern for the Canes was losing Martinook in the second period. Martinook, who scored the Canes’ first goal 14 seconds into what would be a three-goal second, took a hip check from Radko Gudas along the boards and left the ice in pain, unable to put weight on his right leg.
The Canes lost defenseman Brady Skjei to a concussion in Tuesday’s 4-1 win at Tampa Bay. Now, another player down.
“It was pretty gutsy, yep, I agree,” Brind’Amour said. “We were kind of iffy at the start of the game. We got going and weren’t really giving up too much and then the penalty trouble turned that game into what had to be a gutsy win. That’s what it was.”
Leading 3-1 in the the third, the Canes hunkered down around goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who faced 19 shots in the third and finished with 32 saves. Barkov scored with 7:58 left in regulation on the 5-on-3 but the Canes killed off the second penalty and then later calls against Jordan Staal and Vincent Trocheck.
Trocheck was called for hooking with 1:42 left in regulation, but the Panthers could not tie it and Aho closed it out with his 12th career shorthanded goal.
The eighth and final game in the regular-season series is Saturday at BB&T Center. The Panthers had a seven-game win streak at home end Thursday.
“Every game has been a disappointing loss and frustrating in some ways,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “You’ve got to play a perfect game against them. There’s no time, no space. Every shift is magnified in its importance knowing you don’’t have the time to do anything. They check hard and they check well.”
(Earlier updates)
Second period: Canes surge ahead
The Canes needed 14 seconds in the second period to tie the score on a Jordan Martinook goal, took the lead on Nino Niederreiter’s power-play score and added to it as Sebastian Aho scored shorthanded.
Martinook, open in the slot, took a pass from Jordan Staal from behind the net and beat Sergei Bobrovsky for his fourth goal of the season and his second in two games.
Niederreiter’s 17th of the season came off a rebound on a power play at 11:09 of the second. Brett Pesce, who had the shot, picked up his 19th assist of the season and Martin Necas his 24th.
Niederreiter, who had a goal and assist Tuesday against Tampa Bay, picked up his 30th point of the season. That’s topped his total of 29 points last season in 67 games.
Aho scored at 18:08 after Necas made a steal on the penalty kill near the blue line. Aho and Necas played a little two-man game with the puck before Aho knocked it in for his 19th of the season and a 3-1 lead.
One big concern for the Canes: Martinook left the game after taking a hip check from Radko Gudas along the boards with 4:37 left in the period. Martinook was in pain and could not put weight on his right leg as he left the ice.
First period: one goal, one fight
The game was barely six minutes old and there already had been a goal scored and a fight held as the Panthers took a 1-0 lead after the first period.
Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers scored the goal, his 20th of the season. Barkov scored after a scramble in front of the Canes net and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped a couple of shots before the score.
The Barkov goal, at 6:22 of the first, came a little more than a minute after the Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg and the Canes’ Cedric Paquette dropped the gloves and started throwing hands.
There were five power plays in a tightly called first period, three for the Panthers, but all five penalties were killed off. The Canes’ best scoring chance in the period came shorthanded when Sebastian Aho got off a shot from the slot that forced Sergei Bobrovsky into a tough save.
The fighting major for Paquette was the Canes’ third in the past three games. The last time the Canes had three in a row was in April 2013, when they had fighting majors in four straight games.
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 6:42 PM.
