Carolina Hurricanes shut out Tampa Bay, pick up road win in second game of back-to-back

By the time Stefan Noesen scored with 2:06 to play in regulation Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes felt much more comfortable in the second game of the team’s two-night Florida swing than they did for most of the first.

Noesen’s strike, a tip-in on a Michael Bunting shot from the left circle, cemented a 4-0 road win for the Canes over the Tampa Bay Lightning, bringing to close a long stretch of games away from home.

Noesen, playing in his 300th NHL game, batted the puck out of the air after Bunting’s initial offering hit Tampa Bay goalie Jonas Johansson in the stick and popped free. The puck appeared to slip under Johansson’s arm.

On the other end, Pyotr Kochetkov looked more like the young star who started to break out at this time a year ago. The Russian keeper stopped all 22 shots he saw to earn the shutout, his fifth in 31 career NHL games. A season ago, buoyed by a stellar run late in 2022, Kochetkov finished the regular campaign with a 12-7-5 record, a 2.44 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 24 appearances. His 2023-24 campaign — in which he’d appeared three times with two starts prior to Saturday — started less than auspiciously. He’s allowed more than four goals per game average, with a save percentage of .836.

Saturday, he went a long way to improving those numbers.

For the second consecutive game, the Hurricanes scored early in the first period. This time Teuvo Teravainen took advantage of an early Canes power play and fired a slap shot past Lightning keeper Jonas Johansson on a feed from Sebastian Aho.

This time, the Canes retained their lead beyond the following minute, taking that 1-0 advantage into the first intermission.

In the second, Carolina added a second strike, this one at even strength from Aho. Andrei Svechnikov, still searching for his first goal of the season as he works his way back from knee surgery in the offseason, had the primary assist on Aho’s fourth of the season.

In the third, Brent Burns got in on the action, tipping in a Brady Skjei shot to pad the Canes’ lead, setting up Noesen’s closer.

The Hurricanes have now played 11 of the first 15 games of the season on the road, going 5-6 in that stretch. Carolina is 4-0 at home, and will play seven of its next eight at PNC Arena, beginning Wednesday night against Philadelphia in a nationally televised contest.

Panthers stifle Hurricanes

The road had not been overly kind to the Carolina Hurricanes this season — which has been a problem since 10 of the team’s first 16 games have been away from Raleigh.

In the first meeting of the season between last year’s Eastern Conference finalists, the Florida Panthers responded quickly to an early Canes goal and never trailed again, skating off with a 5-2 win over Carolina at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

Five different skaters scored for the Panthers, who got a typically solid night of work from all-world goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. “Bob” stopped 28 of 30 shots in the win.

In a rare occurrence, the Panthers actually outshot the Hurricanes, 35-30. Antti Raanta faced 34 of those shots, and stopped 30. Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Sebastian Aho had the goals for Carolina.

Kotkaniemi got the Canes on the board just 1:20 into the game on a snap shot, giving the road team a quick advantage, but as quickly as Carolina struck, the Panthers replied. Matthew Tkachuk, a thorn in the Hurricanes’ side in last season’s Eastern Conference Final series, netted his third of the year at 3:01 of the first to even things up at 1-1.

Late in the first, after a prolonged period of Hurricanes offensive-zone pressure, the Panthers countered and went ahead 2-1 when Uvis Balinskis finished a quick-strike 2-on-1 down low at the left post.

The Panthers extended their lead at 7:08 of the second when Aleksander Barkov finished a rebound at the left post on a shot from the opposite corner by Evan Rodrigues. The Canes drew back within one later in the second on Aho’s third of the season, but that’s as close as they’d get.

The Panthers extended their lead with another counter-attack goal at 13:18 of the third from Carter Verhaeghe, and Kevin Stenlund capped the scoring with an empty-netter in the final two minutes.

There was no rest for the weary as the Canes traveled across the Florida peninsula to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 9:51 PM.