Sebastian Aho scored the game winner, Jackson Blake was all over the ice Pyotr Kochetkov made 14 saves including several in the final few minutes during four minutes of power play time, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins 2-1 in a showdown between the two teams leading the points in the Eastern Conference.
The matchup certainly lived up to the hype, and it started quickly. The opening face-off led to a point blank shot by Logan Stankoven. Boston would gain possession quickly from there, and that eventually led to a penalty on Andrei Svechnikov. Thirty seconds into that penalty, Pavel Zacha found himself alone in front of the net while the penalty kill unit focused on the dangerous David Pastrnak, making it 1-0 just 1:30 into the game. The score would stay that way for almost the rest of the first thanks to some great stops by both Jeremy Swayman and Pyotr Kochetkov, who had no chance on the first goal.
Meanwhile the Canes' penalty kill would get better throughout the period, as the second one led to a breakaway chance by Jackson Blake out of the box, and the third penalty saw more time in the Canes' offensive zone than Boston's. The team was also lifted by a long fight between Nicolas Deslauriers and Tanner Jeannot. The fight was a draw but it was lengthy with both getting some good shots in. The combination of that fight plus the strong kill led to the tying goal late in the first, as the Stankoven line that started the period strong finished it that way. They would refuse to let Boston get the puck out of the zone, leading to a nifty steal by Nikolaj Ehlers to the aforementioned Blake, who slammed the puck past Swayman to tie the score at one with just under a minute left.
The Hurricanes would go on to dominate the second period, continuing a trend that saw them score 24 goals in their last ten games—a stat courtesy of Adam Gold. The period would begin and end with a power play, and in between the Canes would outshoot the Bruins 8-2. However the combination of Jeremy Swayman in net and the Canes just going a little high kept the score knotted at one after the period. The period ended, though, with the Canes getting 1:25 of a five on three to start the third as the ten game second period scoring streak would come to an end.
Unfortunately for the Canes, the five-on-three generated very little as Boston refused to come out of their triangle and the Canes' passing was not crisp. Carolina was still able to keep the pressure on, continuing their domination of everything but the score, and then had a scare when Deslauriers commited a bad turnover deep in the zone, basically handing the puck to Matthew Poitras. Poitras got the puck by Kochetkov but nailed the post, and the Canes survived.
Their dominance finally paid off halfway into the third as the Aho line was able to get one by Swayman. The play started as William Carrier broke up a chance in the Boston zone and carried the puck out, his linemates of Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho went with him. Carrier passed over to Svechnikov, who put on a pass in front of the goal that Carrier was able to just tip and redirect over to Aho, who was able to roof it over the Bruins goalie and give the Canes a 2-1 lead.
The Canes locked down defensively as they do until the under five minute mark when Jordan Martinook was called for interference. They would survive that power play with Boston only playing five guys, only to see Aho go into the box for tripping with just over two minutes left. Boston would eventually try six-on-four, but Kochetkov stood strong. The Canes held for one more face-off at even strength as the horn sounded giving them the 2-1 win.
Carolina played strong despite still missing Jordan Staal and finding out before the game that Taylor Hall suffered a new injury during morning skate. After the game coach Rod Brind'Amour didn't think it was serious but would still be out for "a bit."
After the game Kochetkov, Slavin, and Aho spoke with the media and Rod Brind'Amour followed with a press conference:
Pyotr Kochetkov
Part of Jaccob Slavin (interview started as Kochetkov was finishing up)
Sebastian Aho
Rod Brind'Amour
The Canes will not practice on Wednesday, though there's little doubt that Alexander Nikishin's training camp will continue as he works to get up to speed. Next up for Carolina is the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 OT winners against Philly on Tuesday between the bottom two teams in the Metro.
