Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov stars as Hurricanes beat Devils, take Metro Division lead
The Carolina Hurricanes have been trying for more than a month to overtake the New Jersey Devils at the top of the Metropolitan Division standings.
They now have the lead to themselves.
With goalie Pyotr Kochetkov making all the big saves, the Hurricanes took a 4-1 victory Tuesday before a sellout crowd at PNC Arena to move into first place with their sixth straight win.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi gave the Canes (20-6-6) a rapid-fire goal to start the game, and Jordan Staal and Teuvo Teravainen scored in the second period – Teravainen with a short-handed snipe. Stefan Noesen added a fourth goal for Carolina in the third period, chipping the puck off the goalie’s back, as the Canes’ fourth line continues to contribute.
But the story of the game, the headliner, the No. 1 star, was Kochetkov. The rookie was a man in charge of his net, poised, using his speed post to post to make the stops, challenging everything that came his way, making 37 saves.
“That’s a tough team to contain and it was nice to get the lead,” Staal said. “And ‘Koochie’ stole the rest of the show.”
The Devils’ Jack Hughes, active and dangerous all game, got a puck past Kochetkov late in the game. But that was it as New Jersey (21-9-2), despite outshooting the Canes 38-20, lost its sixth in a row.
“It was kind of weird,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve been on the other end of that a lot and it doesn’t feel good. We weren’t very good and they were good. I give them a lot of credit. They were doing what they wanted to do.
“We were able to capitalize on a few of their mistakes. It felt like we were chasing them most of the game but our goalie obviously was great tonight.”
The Canes and Devils both entered the game with 44 points, although the Devils held first place with two more wins. The Hurricanes were 11 points behind New Jersey on Nov. 28, when the Devils were 19-4-0 and the talk of the league, but a 9-0-1 run by the Hurricanes before Tuesday set up a near dead heat in the Metro.
It took the Canes just 20 seconds to take the lead. Seth Jarvis got the puck to the net with a centering pass and Kotkaniemi punched it past Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek for his fourth of the season on what Brind’Amour said might have been Carolina’s best shift of the game.
The Hurricanes then scored twice in a busy second period, had another goal nullified after a review and had Derek Stepan miss an open net on a rebound.
Carolina once again scored quickly in the period – only to have a Martin Necas goal overturned. Defenseman Brent Burns did some nifty stickhandling and set up Necas perfectly 70 seconds into the period, but the goal was challenged by Devils coach Lindy Ruff and it was ruled Necas had been offside.
Staal had an answer for that. After defenseman Jaccob Slavin lifted the puck out of the Canes end into the neutral zone, Staal took a touch pass from Jordan Martinook and rifled a top-shelf shot past Vanecek from the left circle.
No challenge on that one. Staal had his ninth of the season, his team-leading fifth in December, and the Canes a 2-0 lead.
“That was a big part of the game,” Brind’Amour said. “It was a great play by ‘Burnsy’ and it’s too bad it didn’t count.”
Then, Teravainen struck for his shorthanded goal.
With the Canes killing off a Jalen Chatfield penalty, Teravainen had an opening on the right wing. The winger zipped a shot through the Devils’ Alexander Holtz and past Vanecek, who was lifted after the second period for Mackenzie Blackwood.
Through it all, Kochetkov made the stops, improving his record to 10-1-4. On one second-period play, Hughes used his quickness to drive the net, only to have Kochetkov stand his ground and Hughes to go skidding across the ice.
“He looks like he’s been around forever,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s very poised in there. It feels like he belongs and he’s obviously proven it so far.”
As for taking the Metro lead, Brind’Amour said: “We want to be there at the end of the year.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 9:56 PM.
