Unlikely stars Alex Lyon, Brendan Smith lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Blues
The Carolina Hurricanes beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 on Saturday with Alex Lyon in net and Brendan Smith scoring the winning goal.
That’s something Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour didn’t count on, say, about a week or so ago. Not when Lyon was the No. 3 option at goalie and Smith watching games as a healthy scratch.
But things can change quickly. An injury to goalie Antti Raanta and a heavy workload for Frederik Andersen had Brind’Amour going with Lyon against the Blues. With defenseman Brett Pesce still sidelined with an injury, Smith was playing his fourth game with the Canes.
Both delivered against the Blues as the Canes improved to 11-2-0. Lyon, making his first start with Carolina, had 27 saves. Smith made him the winner with a shot from the left point that Blues goalie Joel Hofer could not track with 2:57 left in regulation as the Canes’ Jordan Martinook screened him.
“Any time you score your first with a franchise it’s real exciting,” Smith said. “I remember my first one with the Red Wings and then with the Rangers, and here it’s really thrilling, especially with the G-Dub.”
Smith meant “GW,” the NHL notation for a game-winning goal.
Brind’Amour would call it a “gutsy” win, coming a night after the Canes failed to hold a one-goal lead in the third period and were beaten 2-1 by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Blues, trailing 2-1 after the second, tied it on Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal in the opening minute of the third Saturday, but the Canes maintained their poise and won.
“Right off the bat they got a quick goal but we didn’t stop,” Smith said. “We kept coming, kept the push going, and it worked out in our favor.
“It’s a good club over there. They play a very similar style as we do. Sometimes, you have to just keep going. Roddy (Brind’Amour) calls it the stress game, and it you can win that stress game you ultimately come out on the better side of that.”
The Canes built a 2-0 and it could have been 3-0 had rookie forward Seth Jarvis not had a goal taken away -- for the second straight night. Against the Flyers, Jarvis was ruled to have been offside before scoring. Against the Blues, he scored off a rebound but the goal disallowed after the refs ruled the whistle had been blown, even as the puck bounced around the crease.
Sebastian Aho scored off a smoked one-timer on a power play in the second period for his sixth goal of the season, and defenseman Brady Skjei went top-shelf against Hofer off an Aho pass in transition in the first. Andrei Svechnikov assisted on both goals, forcing a turnover in the neutral zone that led to Skjei’s score, and Tony DeAngelo also had a pair of assists.
The Blues (8-3-2) picked up their first goal in the second period after a Svechnikov penalty, scoring with one second left in the power play as Pavel Buchnevich banged in a rebound. Taransenko’s goal hiked up the stress level.
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Lyon, 28, was making the 23rd career NHL game for the former Yale goalie, who was recalled from the Chicago Wolves of the AHL on Nov. 7, a day after Raanta suffered a concussion at Florida. It was his seventh career win for the former Flyer.
“I was pretty locked in tonight,” Lyon said. “I think I’m good enough to play up here and in that sense you try not to put much pressure on yourself.”
In the Blues net, Hofer was making his second career start as coach Craig Berube decided to sit Jordan Binnington, who has played 10 games. One interesting story line was that Hofer, 21, was Jarvis’ teammate for two years in junior with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL.
It also was the return game for Blues defenseman Justin Faulk, who spent eight seasons with the Canes before being traded to St. Louis in September 2019. Faulk, always a popular player with Carolina and called a “great Hurricane” by Brind’Amour, received a big hand from Canes fans when a tribute was played on the big board in the first period.
The Canes will not play at home until Nov. 28 against Washington, going on the road for the next six games. Forward Martin Necas, who missed his second game with an illness, should rejoin the lineup and Brind’Amour is hopeful of soon getting back Pesce, Raanta and injured forward Nino Niederreiter.
Until then ...
“We need guys to step in and play and make an impact, not just take up space,” Brind’Amour said. “They’ve got to make an impact.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 10:05 PM.
