Carolina Hurricanes stifle Devils. Three takeaways from the Canes’ 1-0 overtime win
On a night when the Carolina Hurricanes celebrated their Hartford Whalers heritage with special jerseys, giveaways and in-arena soundtrack, it was the on-ice product that felt like the 1990s.
Neither the Canes nor the visiting New Jersey Devils had much room to move, neither generated a high number of high-end scoring chances around their opponents’ center-zone and in-zone coverage, and both teams’ goaltenders turned back what they had to, when they had to.
No, the Devils and Whalers — er, Hurricanes — didn’t run a neutral-zone trap for 60-plus minutes Saturday, but the goals were just as hard to come by in a 1-0 Canes overtime win in front of the 47th consecutive sellout crowd at PNC Arena.
Despite the win, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was less than enthused about one certain aspect of the Canes’ game Saturday: puck possession.
“We were watching them skate around and try to get rush opportunities and then we thought we could do it and it just ...” Brind’Amour trailed off. “We had a lot of turnovers and that was the difference there, but we were working extremely hard. Once we did do a turnover, we were working extremely hard not to give up a chance.”
Sebastian Aho had the highlight-reel winner with 1:20 to play in the 3-on-3 overtime when he batted the puck out of the air on a rebound in front of New Jersey keeper Vitek Vanecek after Martin Necas’ shot handcuffed the Czech goalie up high.
“Overtime wasn’t great, we turned the puck over a few times,” Brind’Amour said. “We had full possession, and it was just one of those games for us, we weren’t really mentally sharp with the puck. Like you said, throw your talent guys out there and let them do their thing and we got rewarded.”
Pyotr Kochetkov stopped all 34 shots he saw to earn the shutout. Vanecek stopped 30 of 31 in the loss.
Neither team found the net in the first period, though the Devils had the better of the chances, thanks in part to an extra chance on the power play.
With 7:44 to play in the period, Jalen Chatfield cleared the puck over the glass in his defensive zone. On the ensuing man advantage, the Devils peppered Kochetkov, who made a handful of saves in tight, including one after calculatedly dropping his stick while staring down a Devils forward at the top of the crease.
The Canes and Devils battled to another stalemate in the second, though the Devils had the better play in that frame. Kochetkov was equal to the task, appearing on his toes and on his angles while locating and stopping New Jersey’s chances.
Three takeaways from the Hurricanes’ win:
Kochetkov bounces back
The Hurricanes have had a revolving door in net this season for a variety of reasons — from early-season struggles to injuries … injuries … and more injuries.
It’s a rare occurrence in an NHL game when one goaltender is pulled — for whatever reason — and then reinserted later in the game. That’s happened a couple of times this season for the Canes, most recently Thursday, when Kochetkov started, was gifted a 3-0 lead, and nearly lost it in five seconds late in the first period against Colorado.
The Canes made a switch between periods, to Antti Raanta, who pitched a shutout on nine shots in his period of work. But Raanta appeared to wince on a shot to the midsection late in the second period and he left the game after the second intermission.
Back to Kochetkov, whose second goal allowed was of the not-top-10 variety on a shot from the neutral zone. How would he respond after sitting on that for 20-plus minutes?
By all accounts, just fine, thank you.
In Thursday’s third frame against Colorado, Kochetkov stopped all 10 shots he faced to lock down a 5-2 win.
Saturday, Kochetkov held the Devils scoreless through 63:40 to earn the shutout, running his consecutive shutout streak to 83:40.
“Well, he couldn’t be much better,” Brind’Amour said. “He was sharp, countless saves and at big times. He was the difference for sure.”
Svechnikov’s immediate impact
After missing six games around the NHL All-Star break and the team’s bye week with an upper-body injury, Andrei Svechnikov returned to the lineup Saturday, allowing Brind’Amour to reassemble his ideal forward lines and giving the Canes some added grit and punch up front.
The Canes got the former on nearly every shift. Svechnikov was back banging bodies, creating offensive chances and space for his reassembled S-A-T linemates Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho. But the crafty Russian was shut out on the score sheet in his return.
Saturday marked Svechnikov’s third “return” this season. He missed the first part of the season while recovering from offseason knee surgery. He also missed six games in December with an upper-body injury. After the first extended absence, it took the Canes forward some time to get his scoring touch back, scoring just once and adding 10 assists. But after his December sojourn, Svechnikov went on a tear, scoring 10 goals and adding nine assists in 13 games.
DeAngelo skates again
With Brett Pesce sidelined by illness, sparkplug defender Tony DeAngelo was back in the lineup Saturday for the second consecutive game, his first two games in uniform in a few weeks. He hadn’t skated more than 10 minutes in a game since Nov. 18.
The puck-moving defender had 13:40 of ice time Thursday against Colorado, was a plus-1 and had a blocked shot in a 5-2 Carolina win. He also picked up a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the game’s final seconds coming to the defense of a teammate.
Saturday, DeAngelo was quick to engage in a scrum following a penalty to the Devils’ Timo Meier during his limited (4:17) first-period ice time. In the second, he skated another 5:03, all at even strength, added a shot on goal and played solid defensively.
In the third, DeAngelo turned in another 4:17 to reach 13:47 for the game.
Canes news and notes
▪ Pesce, who’s just two games shy of 600 for his NHL career — all with the Hurricanes — will have to wait a bit longer to reach that milestone. Pesce missed his second consecutive game due to illness Saturday.
▪ Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s next game will be his 200th with the Hurricanes since Carolina’s now-famous (infamous?) offer-sheet acquisition of the Finnish forward in 2021. Prior to Saturday’s game, in 198 games with the Canes, Kotkaniemi had 39 goals and 51 assists for 90 points.
▪ With the team officially reporting a sellout Saturday, it marks 47 consecutive sold-out games at PNC Arena, dating to Feb. 24 last season.
This story was originally published February 10, 2024 at 9:54 PM.
