Back-to-back for Brandon Bussi: What we learned in Hurricanes’ win over Flames
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- Brandon Bussi earned his first NHL shutout and seventh win in eight starts.
- Hurricanes won 1-0 in overtime as Nikolaj Ehlers finished a 2-on-1 for the victory.
- Game reverted to defensive slog: 17-15 shots, few penalties, neutral-zone battles.
Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato shook free of a muddled neutral zone and broke in alone on Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi. With a defender draped on his back, Coronato stepped into a snap shot from the top of the circles, the puck labeled for the top left corner.
Bussi, a left-handed goalie, snared the puck with the catching glove on his right hand. It was a rare quality opportunity Sunday — for either team — and Bussi, making his second consecutive start, was game.
So, too, was Calgary keeper Devin Cooley, who stopped all 16 shots he faced in regulation. But Cooley couldn’t stop the last shot of the game, a Nikolaj Ehlers finish on a 2-on-1 in overtime that gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 overtime win over the Flames.
Bussi, meanwhile, collected his seventh win in eight NHL starts — his second in three nights — and his first career shutout with a 15-save effort.
“He’s come up with the timely saves,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after the game Sunday. “That’s kind of how I sum that up. It’s not like we’ve been leaving him out to dry and he’s seeing 40 shots, it’s not like that, but there’s a breakaway here or there, those are huge moments in tight games.”
The Hurricanes (16-7-2) collected their second consecutive win after a pair of losses, and are 2-1 on their season-long homestand.
Here’s what else we learned in Sunday’s win:
Turn back the clock
Coming out of the NHL lockout in 2005, the league enacted new rules to try and speed the game up: No more two-line pass infractions, with an emphasis on calling clutching, grabbing and hooking penalties among them.
And the game has evolved over the past 20 years thanks in part to those changes. Smaller players can thrive. The game is faster. Player skills are even more jaw-dropping.
But Sunday may as well have been “90s Nostalgia Night” at Lenovo Center in a game that can be described with myriad adjectives synonymous with “slog.”
Calgary clogged the neutral zone. Carolina stifled zone entries. Players sold out to block shots. The puck stalled along the boards. There were just two penalties, one for each team. The teams had just 10 shots on goal each through two periods and the final total was 17-15.
Very “slog”-like. Very New-Jersey-Devils-of-the-90s-like.
Not that the Hurricanes aren’t built to play a game like that – they’re used to bottling up the opposition and minimizing shots, usually by maintaining possession and creating multiple offensive chances while playing offensive-zone keep-away.
But even that was tough for the Canes on Sunday.
Bussi gets back-to-back starts
Bussi has hit a few benchmarks this season, his first patrolling an NHL crease. He made his first NHL start, of course. He earned his first win, back in October during the Canes’ long trip west, and has added five more in six starts since. And then, Sunday, his first shutout.
But Sunday, he added another “first” at the first drop of the puck: Bussi started back-to-back games for the first time.
After Friday’s home win over Winnipeg, Brind’Amour was asked about Bussi’s solid play, despite an awkward schedule as a backup to a backup and fill-in keeper.
“We’ve kind of thrust him into some weird situations,” Brind’Amour told the media Saturday. “He doesn’t know when he’s starting based on the health of the other guys, but I think he’s done a good job. (Friday) night, he came up with two really crucial saves at crucial times and helped us keep playing our game, and obviously win. He’s earned every start he’s had, and he’s definitely earned the next one, whenever that is.”
“Whenever” was Sunday, and Bussi was up to the task — when he needed to be.
His night started slowly: Bussi only saw three shots in the opening frame, turning back all of them, and Calgary didn’t register its first shot until just after the 10-minute mark of the first period.
The second period was much of the same. Calgary managed seven shots, but the first again did not come until midway through the period.
“These are the games that are fun for goalies,” Bussi said Sunday. “You don’t know what’s going to be that moment to change the tide, and fortunately we got it.”
Welcome back, captain
After a week away from the ice, Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal was back with the team Sunday against the Flames, and in his customary position between Jordan Martinook and William Carrier on the Canes’ shutdown line.
Staal missed three games due to illness, during which the Hurricanes went 1-2, with a road loss at Buffalo, a home loss to the Rangers and a home win over Winnipeg.
“That line, it just sets our whole team up,” Brind’Amour said of Staal’s group after the two losses last week. “The way they play, they generally neutralize whoever they’re playing against and then that just sets up everyone else to usually have different matchups and a little less stress on D-zone faceoffs. The takeaway is just how valuable that player is to our group.”
Martinook did have a goal in the Winnipeg win Friday — the game-winner, even — but that line isn’t the same without Staal.
And with Staal in the lineup, the rest of the lines shake out closer to normal, too, which helps with continuity, something for which the Canes have been desperate this season.
Sunday, Staal, Martinook and Carrier had the most energy of any of the Canes’ lines later in the game, getting a pair of quality scoring chances as the minutes ticked away in a 0-0 game.
“We know what he brings,” Brind’Amour said Sunday. “The faceoffs, taking the stress off some of the other guys. It’s a tough game for him, he hasn’t done much in the last five or six days, so I knew that was going to be a little tough. But their line was good, they had a chance right at the end of the game to win it.
Sunday’s game also marked the closest to full strength the Hurricanes have been this season among its skating group with respect to their projected season-opening starting 20. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin remains sidelined with an undisclosed injury, and center Jesperi Korkaniemi missed his eighth consecutive game Sunday with an ankle injury, though he skated in an optional skate with teammates on Saturday.
Lingering injuries include those to Slavin, Kotkaniemi, goalie Pyotr Kochetkov (undisclosed) and rookie defender Charles-Alexis Legault (wrist).
This story was originally published November 30, 2025 at 8:09 PM.
