Hurricanes’ bid for a 10th straight win and piece of NHL history denied by Panthers
For the first time this season, the Carolina Hurricanes have left the ice losers.
The Canes were after a 10th consecutive win and a slice of NHL history Saturday, only to have a poor start, fall behind the Florida Panthers and not recover in a 5-2 road loss at FLA Live Arena.
Only two teams have won their first 10 games to start a season: the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993-94 and the Buffalo Sabres in 2006-07. The Canes were 9-0 and bidding to be the third, but instead suffered through a miserable first period.
Canes goalie Frederik Andersen was after his ninth consecutive win of the season. That was not to be as Antti Raanta relieved him after the Panthers scored four times in the first, only to have Andersen return when Raanta was knocked out of the game with an upper-body injury.
Raanta was injured at 12:22 of the second when he skated out of the crease to play the puck. Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg, who collided with Raanta, was called for a five-minute charging major and given a game misconduct.
“It’s the heat of the game and ‘Rantz’ is trying to make a good play and their guy is trying to score a goal, and sometimes those things just happen,” Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Raanta appeared “fine” after the game but said he assumed Raanta was concussed on the play.
The Canes, with the man advantage for five minutes and with Andersen back in net, got a power-play goal from Vincent Trocheck to pull within 4-2 — Trocheck’s seventh goal in nine games against his former team. Jesper Fast first got the Canes on the board seven minutes into the second.
Carolina continued to push in the third, but Panthers goalie Spencer Knight would not bend, making 10 of his 28 saves in the final period. Anthony Duclair had two goals and two assists for Florida (10-0-1), which leads the Atlantic Division.
The Panthers led 4-0 after a first period in which they scored three power-play goals — by Duclair, Frank Vatrano and Patric Hornqvist — and had Andersen and Canes scrambling.
“Special teams was the difference tonight,” Brind’Amour said. “We were terrible on those and they were good.
“We could have maybe even won this game tonight and I’d still be irate with the way we played. That was not good. We just weren’t sharp. Special teams was the game tonight but there were way too many breakaways and odd-man rushes, the things we don’t give up.”
The Canes were playing without injured defenseman Brett Pesce and missed him. But the Panthers made center Aleksander Barkov, their captain and best player, a late scratch just before the game.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky also was out with an injury suffered Thursday in the overtime win over the Washington Capitals. But Knight, in his fifth game, improved to 4-0-1 this season.
Fast scored his fifth goal of the season — the forward had six in 58 games last season — to give the Canes some life in the second period. But the heavy damage had been done by the Panthers.
Little went right in the first for the Canes, who were 6-0-2 against Florida last season in the Central Division.
Slavin, who rarely spends time in the penalty box, was called for tripping 37 seconds into the game. That was the first of the four Canes penalties in the first period, and the Panthers made the most of them on the power play while rookie forward Anton Lundell added an even-strength goal.
“It was us digging ourselves a hole in the first period,” Slavin said. “Guys battled hard after that but ...”
The Canes entered the game third in the NHL in penalty killing at 90.2 percent, having allowed only four power-play goals this season. But Duclair, who had a goal and two assists in the first period, ripped a shot past Andersen, Vatrano scored from deep range and Hornqvist tapped in a shot.
That’s on us, We’ve got to be prepared,” Trocheck said. “It’s the National Hockey League and what we do for a living We’ve got to be ready to play. Penalties are a result of lackluster play and not being prepared.”
Florida won its first eight games before a shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Oct. 30. The Canes were left as the NHL’s only undefeated team entering November, a travel-heavy month for Carolina, which has just three home games.
The Hurricanes complete their two-game Florida swing and go to Tampa Bay on Tuesday to face the team that knocked them out of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season.
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 8:42 PM.
