Hurricanes use strong penalty killing, goaltending of Antti Raanta to take 4-0 victory
Antti Raanta was mugged after the Carolina Hurricanes’ 4-0 win Friday over the Ottawa Senators.
Mugged in a good way, that is.
The Hurricanes’ postgame Storm Surge turned into a mass hug of sorts for the veteran goalie after his 32-save shutout, his third of the season, as his teammates chased him down and swarmed around him.
“I think the last time for that was in 2013 when we won the Finnish championship,” Raanta said, smiling. “But I kind of knew they were going to come at me.”
Canes fans at PNC Arena loved it. They also were chanting his name as Raanta was named the game’s first star as the Hurricanes (39-10-8) won their fifth straight game.
“Most of the credit goes to him,” defenseman Brady Skjei said. “He was phenomenal tonight.”
The combination of Raanta’s play and strong, aggressive penalty killing was the difference in a game that had the Canes jump to a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes — on goals by Brent Burns and Seth Jarvis — but then turn into more of a slog. But the Hurricanes got the hard work done, killing off all five penalties and a 5-on-3 power play by Ottawa (27-26-4) early in the second period.
The Canes’ final penalty kill also was critical. It came in the third period after defenseman Calvin de Haan was called for tripping. Moments after the kill, Martin Necas scored his 23rd of the season for a 3-0 lead.
Skjei had the final goal, whipping a shot the length of the ice for an empty-net score after the Sens pulled goalie Cam Talbot.
“These guys have lost 10 games all year,” Sens coach D.J. Smith said. “To come in here, with their ability, you’re going to have to win the special teams. Our power play, the 5 on 3, we’ve got to find a way to score. Score there and you’ve got them on their heels but we didn’t create enough.”
Raanta faced just seven shots in the first as the Canes unloaded 17 against Talbot, playing his first game since Jan. 25. Raanta stopped a breakaway in the first by Julien Gauthier, a former Canes first-round draft pick, then denied Alex DeBrincat on another breakaway in the second.
Raanta, 12-0-1 in his last 13 decisions. had 25 stops in the final two periods, making several high-quality saves.
“Best player on the ice tonight,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
It also helped that the Canes shutdown line of Jordan Staal, Jordan Martinook and Jesper Fast contained the Sens’ dangerous Tim Stützle line that has Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux on the wings. The Stützle line combined for 10 shots, a few dangerous, but could not beat Raanta.
“They’re a good line and hard to play against, but playing against Jordo’s line is really tough,” Skjei said.
Burns scored 3:48 into the game after Jarvis was shoved into Talbot and both landed in the net. Burns got off a high, heavy shot from the slot for his 12th goal of the season.
“I was so scared to look up,” Jarvis said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I was in the net and I knew play was still going on, and I wasn’t about to show face.
“I saw on the replay it was probably a good couple of inches over my head, thankfully. (Burns) said he didn’t look up, so he didn’t even know I was in the net.”
Jarvis picked up his 13th goal after Andrei Svechnikov won a board battle and got the puck to Sebastian Aho. Talbot made an initial stop on Jarvis but the winger gathered in the loose puck and scored his fifth in four games.
Necas scored off a Svechnikov pass in the third. Svechnikov, who finished with two assists, had a plus-4 plus/minus rating for the second straight game.
Raanta took it from there for the Canes, who host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
“We got the two points and we move on,” Brind’Amour said.
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 9:40 PM.
