The Hurricanes had a losing road trip after loss to Minnesota Wild. So, now what?
In the last game of a road trip, in their fourth game in six days, the Carolina Hurricanes battled to the final second Saturday.
But a hectic scramble in front of the Minnesota Wild net came to an end with the horn sounding, the Wild winning 3-2 and the Canes slowly skating off the ice at Excel Energy Center.
The Canes came away from from the trip 1-2-1, losing three of four after the NHL All-Star break. Yes, they battered the Boston Bruins 6-0 and they earned a point in an overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs to start the trip, but nothing stings like a regulation loss and the Hurricanes had two.
Ottawa took a 4-0 lead and held on to win 4-3. Minnesota took a 3-0 lead Saturday before the Canes’ Andrei Svechnikov scored twice in the third period to tighten things up.
How to assess the trip, made up of four games postponed earlier in the season because of COVID-19 issues?
“If we would win this game it would be great,” Svechnikov said after the game.
But they could not beat the Wild (29-11-3), who are 10-1-1 in their past 12 games. Instead, the Canes returned to Raleigh with a 32-11-3 record, albeit still in first place in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“The easy thing to say is, ‘We lost three of four (games) and that’s bad,’ but that’s not how I’m looking at it,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Game one (Toronto) we should have won, I think. We had a bad game and game two (Ottawa) wasn’t great, but I liked the way our guys dug in and fought back, and obviously played really well in game three and this game was maybe even better than that.
“Obviously, the outcome is not acceptable but there’s a lot of good that went on here.”
The last game of the road trip was the most entertaining of the four.
A pair of Russians who might have been in Beijing for the Olympics had the NHL allowed its players to complete showed off their skills — Svechnikov and Kirill Kaprizov of the Wild.
Svechnikov, the Canes’ best forward this night, twice beat All-Star goalie Cam Talbot in the third and has 20 goals for the season. His second score, on a Carolina play play, came on a heavy one-timer that left Talbot feeling helpless and pulled the Canes within 3-2 with more than 13 minutes left in regulation.
“He was all over it tonight,” Brind’Amour said of Svechnikov, who had seven of the Canes’ 39 shots.
Svechnikov has eight goals and 10 assists in his last 12 games. It would be easy to say it might be the best stretch of hockey in his four-year NHL career, and he has had some very good stretches.
“He’s a dominant player,” said Canes defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who assisted on both goals. “He’s got a dominant frame to him, he’s a great skater, he’s a great kid and when he’s playing like that it just makes our team that much better and that much deeper throughout the four lines.”
Kaprizov was special, again. Put the puck on his stick and the Wild forward is dynamic, dangerous. And slippery.
Kaprizov, at 24 and three years older than Svechnikov, looked the part of the player who was last year’s Calder Trophy winner as the NHL’s best rookie. His goal in the second period pushed Minnesota ahead 2-0 — his 20th of the season — and he had other chances.
“He’s a great player. A star for sure,” Svechnikov said.
Kaprizov’s goal came after a Canes turnover in the Carolina zone. Andersen couldn’t stop him but made several high-quality stops -- Minnesota had a 29-18 edge in scoring chances according to NaturalStatTrick.com -- over the 60 minutes to allow the Canes a chance to make things testy for the Wild.
The Hurricanes were 4-1-1 on their longest road trip of the season, in November. They were 3-1-0 on a four-game swing in December and are 16-7-2 on the road overall. No team in the league has more road wins.
But regulation losses are the worst, home or away. That hasn’t changed. A team can put in the work and play hard and well, as the Canes did for most of Saturday’s game, and come away empty handed.
“That’s exactly right,” Brind’Amour said. “At the end of the day you’ve got to win the games, you’ve got to find a way. We played a pretty good game and created enough to win. Those are tough.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
