Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta gets second look in preseason loss to Predators in OT
Antti Raanta wasn’t happy with the first time he put on a Carolina Hurricanes uniform and took the ice for a game.
It was a preseason exhibition. Win or lose, it didn’t matter. The score was irrelevant.
Unless you were Raanta, the goalie, the man in net trying to prevent scores.
“Obviously seven goals against is not the way you want to play,” Raanta said.
That’s how many Raanta allowed Friday in his first preseason start for Carolina, in an 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s what made his second preseason start for the Canes, against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday at PNC Arena, even more important.
The Predators won 3-2 in a game that had regular-season intensity and hitting. It went to overtime — preseason this time, not the playoffs — and Philip Tomasino scored the winner at 2:49 of OT.
Canes center Steven Lorentz scored early in the first period and winger Jesper Fast blasted in a shot off the rush in the third for a 2-2 tie. Raanta faced 34 shots in the game, giving up an early goal and power-play goal but giving the Canes a generally strong effort.
“He was good,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said to the media. “He made some big saves, especially early when we were running around a little bit. He didn’t have a lot of work for almost a period, then he made a couple of big saves at the end to get us into overtime.”
Raanta said he wanted to be sharper, better on all the “little details” in his second preseason start. Not rush things. Be compact in net. Have better balance.
“It’s about being consistent,” he said in a media interview Monday. “You need to be calm in net. Make the saves when you need to make them and a few highlight saves here and there. That should be good enough in front of this team. Just be consistent.”
And then the Predators scored 27 seconds into Tuesday’s game.
Ryan Johansen took a pass from Matt Duchene and beat Raanta for a 1-0 lead on the first shift of the game.
The Canes didn’t take long to answer. Lorentz, centering the Canes’ fourth line, got off a shot from the left circle that Juuse Saros stopped. Lorentz stayed on the move, circled the net and jammed in the loose puck for a 1-1 tie.
Raanta steadied after the quick strike, stopping 13 shots in the first period. Later in the first, he moved quickly to his right to stop a shot by Colton Sissons off the rush, then stopped a shorthanded try by Tanner Jeannot in the final minute of the opening period.
The Preds scored on an early second-period power play. Duchene redirected a Roman Josi shot from the point for a 2-1 lead — the Preds were outshot 18-6 in the second but kept the lead until Fast tied the score with 6:38 left in regulation.
Raanta, 32, has played more than 200 NHL regular-season and playoff games. He realizes it’s the preseason and his experience helps.
“The good thing is you don’t have to take the loss, or lose any points,” Raanta said.
That’s why he was much at ease as he discussed his first game. Raanta comes across as easy-going off the ice, with a friendly demeanor, a player who’s quick with a quip — especially about the other Finns.
He has called Teuvo Teravainen “goofy” and referred to Teravainen, Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkanimei as his “kids,” posting a photo on his Instagram account of himself and a youthful Kotkaniemi in Finland from years ago.
That “kids” comment, which he said with a grin, has earned him a new nickname on the team: “Father Finn.”
“If I was 22, I would not be this smiley or this smart about the things that went wrong or went right,” he said. “You go back on the ice and try to get better on things and build yourself for the next game.”
The Canes brought in Raanta and Frederik Andersen as free agents after deciding to allow goalies Petr Mrazek and James Reimer to sign elsewhere and trading Alex Nedeljkovic to Detroit. Raanta, often injured while playing for the Arizona Coyotes, received a two-year, $4 million deal.
Brind’Amour more or less shook off Raanta’s first game.
“I’m not too worried about it, yet,” Brind’Amour said to the media after Tuesday’s morning skate. “He hasn’t played much in a year, year and a half. I just think he needs to get game-ready so I’m not too concerned about that. But he’s one of the guys who needs to get his feet wet.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 9:40 PM.
