Hurricanes shake off Flyers. Takeaways from the Canes’ overtime win over Philadelphia
The Carolina Hurricanes are feeling pretty good about their team right now — and why not? The Canes have 10 wins in their past 12 games, have just five regulation losses since the beginning of February, and are riding a high since acquiring two blue-chip forwards at the NHL trade deadline while nearly simultaneously welcoming back All-Star goalie Frederik Andersen — just in time for the final push of the regular season.
Thursday, the Canes kept their five-game win streak alive when Seth Jarvis beat Philadelphia goalie Samuel Ersson with a wrist shot on a feed from Brent Burns 1:28 into overtime to lift Carolina past the Flyers, 3-2.
Jordan Martinook and Jalen Chatfield also had goals for the Hurricanes, who kept pace with the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division after New York earned a win at Boston. The Rangers have 96 points with 12 games to play, while the Canes have 94, also with 12 remaining.
“That’s fun hockey to play, not playing a team that’s cheating the game,” Chatfield said. “They were playing hard, they were blocking shots, and we knew before the game started they were going to play that kind of game.”
And, Chatfield said, the Canes are expecting more of the same down the stretch.
“The season’s ending, it’s time to tighten up and make sure we’re at full gear and playing the right way,” Chatfield said. “There’s a lot of teams fighting to get in the playoffs, and to stay in there, so it’s going to be good hockey.”
All the optimism — there is plenty of it these days in Canes Country, and for good reason — still has a tinge of caution attached to it, and that starts with what onlookers saw at the team’s morning skate: three Hurricanes nursing injuries, a situation that conjures images of a year ago, when Andrei Svechnikov, the Canes’ all-star forward, was shut down for the season with a torn ACL.
Carolina finished the regular season strong and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final largely thanks to solid goaltending from Andersen and Antti Raanta. (The keepers combined for a .920 playoff save percentage, and Andersen’s GAA was 1.83 in nine starts.)
But in the conference final, when the Canes needed a clutch goal — any goal — in four consecutive one-goal losses to Florida, the well was dry. Svechnikov’s absence also forced coach Rod Brind’Amour to shift lines, and the team’s overall lack of depth up front was exposed.
Thursday, Teuvo Teravainen, Jesper Fast and Jack Drury all missed the game against the Flyers. Teravainen and Drury skated in practice; Fast did not. The missing regulars forced Brind’Amour to play all available skaters — 11 forwards and seven defenders.
Hurricanes’ depth scoring
That the team had to skate 11-and-7 — with Tony DeAngelo drawing in against his former team — gave it an opportunity to test drive its newly acquired depth before the games matter more. Forwards rotated through a line with Jordan Staal and Martinook, for example, and without Teravainen, the scoring lines have looked a little different.
Not that it mattered much for the offensive production Thursday against a Philadelphia team playing with desperation as it tried to cling to its playoff hopes.
And on cue, the Canes’ first goal of the night, in the second period, came on a mid-slot snipe from Martinook, more familiarly noted for his grinding forecheck and lockdown defensive acumen. Martinook was among the forwards with the least time on ice Thursday — just 14:48 — but netted his 13th goal of the season to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.
Chatfield, among the team’s “regular” defenders but also prone to the least amount of ice time among those defenders, made it 2-1 for the Hurricanes later in the second period, his fifth goal of the year. He had just 13:19 of total ice time.
“(Chatfield’s) got a good shot, he’s good at reading the play and of course he has good speed,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s been another player, you talk about consistent, that’s what he’s been all year.”
Depth ... and Seth Jarvis
Speaking of finding more scoring, if it feels like you’re seeing Jarvis’ name in the scoring column more than in the past, you’re not imagining things. Jarvis, who will be a restricted free agent after this season and will most certainly command a big raise, has set career highs in goals (25), assists (30), points (55) and game-winning goals (7).
His 55 points are already 15 more than his previous best, with 12 games to play this season. His goal Thursday was his sixth in five games, and he’s scored at least one in each of those five.
“He’s definitely helped us push along,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s been a really good year for him and he’s finding the net, which is huge. Obviously tonight, you just never know with those guys. Just wasn’t a great game and then all of a sudden you get it on the stick at the right time and he’s able to put it in. He’s been one of our more consistent players throughout the year.”
Canes going back-to-back … again?
If it feels like the Hurricanes have played a lot of back-to-back games this season, well, they have.
Thursday’s game against Philadelphia marked the start of their 13th set of back-to-back games this season — this coming on the heels of the 12th such instance last weekend. In fact, this week’s stretch of six games in eight days is the team’s most active of the season.
Playing these back-to-backs has not been detrimental to the Canes in the standings, though. In the team’s 12 sets of back-to-back games prior to Thursday, Carolina was 16-5-3, including 9-3-0 in the front-end game, and had swept its previous two — including last weekend in Toronto and Ottawa.
Steady Freddie
In his 11th start of the 2023-24 season, Andersen was again as solid as they come between the pipes for the Canes. In the four games prior to his 40-plus-game absence while sorting out a blood-clotting issue, Andersen appeared to find his game, allowing just seven goals in that span.
Since his return? More of the same.
In five games, Andersen has allowed just seven goals, including a shutout win over Florida on March 14. Most importantly, he earned another win Thursday, stopping 31 of 33 shots with another sub-2.00 GAA effort.
“I think we got away with one, goalie played great,” Brind’Amour said. “We were pretty bad to be quite honest. They were good, they were desperate.”
Pyotr Kochetkov has three wins in his past four starts, as well, with the one loss a tough 1-0 setback at home against the Rangers.
Spencer Martin, claimed off waivers during the height of the Canes’ goaltending woes this winter, has been the backup of record a handful of times during this stretch, and recently signed a one-year contract with the Canes for next season, solidifying his place as the team’s depth goalie for the stretch run. He has not lost a game in regulation in a Canes uniform.
This story was originally published March 21, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
