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The Carolina Hurricanes kicked off 2024 with a big win last night, defeating the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers 6-1 on the road.
With Jesper Fast unavailable after getting hurt in the win over Toronto, Brendan Lemieux came into the lineup on the fourth line, playing alongside Jack Drury and Michael Bunting, while Stefan Noesen moved up to the second line to play with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Martin Necas.
The Hurricanes’ power play kept rolling early on, with Jack Drury taking a pass from Stefan Noesen to beat Igor Shesterkin, putting Carolina ahead under two minutes into the game. The Hurricanes ended up killing a penalty of their own shortly after, but ended up having a pretty quiet rest of the frame. While they didn’t give up a ton of great chances, they were still getting outshot pretty badly through most of the period. However, with another late power play chance, the Hurricanes struck once again, with Andrei Svechnikov taking a one-timer pass from Sebastian Aho to extend the lead to 2-0 through 20 minutes.
While the Hurricanes were then able to kill off a penalty early in the second period, the Rangers cut the lead in half shortly after, with Chris Kreider tipping in Jacob Trouba’s point shot. However, the Hurricanes wasted no time in responding, and just two minutes later, Jordan Staal tracked down a puck in the offensive zone and got it out front to Jordan Martinook, who reinstated the two goal lead.
The Hurricanes were outplayed at times from there, but managed to get to the second intermission with a 3-1 lead, despite being outshot 22-14 at that point.
Early in the third period though, the Hurricanes quickly put the game out of reach, with two goals in the first three minutes of the period, courtesy of Jalen Chatfield, as well as a second goal from Svechnikov. Then after putting together what was their best period of the game, Michael Bunting took a great pass from Brendan Lemieux and deked Shesterkin to score with under five minutes to go, as the Hurricanes cruised to a 6-1 win.
It’s a huge win for the Hurricanes to start the year, and one that they can build a bit of momentum from. They now find themselves on a four-game win streak, and earned the victory against the top team in the division while playing on the road.
It wasn’t necessarily pretty through the first 40 minutes, with the Rangers arguably getting the better of Carolina through a lot of that stretch. But the Hurricanes capitalized on their chances, and put together a strong finish to run away with it.
Of course, Carolina's power play was key again, with two first period goals to put the team ahead early. It’s been one of the biggest reasons for the recent success, ranking fifth in the NHL. The Hurricanes outright won the special teams battle overall as well, killing off all three of New York's power plays.
Andrei Svechnikov continued his hot stretch with another two goals, bringing his totals over the last five games to six goals and 11 points. Meanwhile, Sebastian Aho kept his point streak going too, reaching five games with another assist.
Jack Drury has also been a really interesting story for the Hurricanes as of late. With a goal and an assist last night, he continues what’s been his best stretch of NHL action. After a slow start, he’s managed 15 points over his last 23 games, gaining a slightly larger role in the process. While he’s only averaged 11 minutes overall this season, that’s often been quite a bit over the last 10 games or so. With Jordan Staal’s production slipping a little and Jesperi Kotkaniemi having some inconsistencies, it wouldn't be shocking to see Drury get more responsibility as the season goes on.
Pyotr Kochetkov also deserves a mention, putting together yet another really strong performance with 28 saves in the win. He was important in helping the Hurricanes preserve the lead through the first half of the game, and has quietly risen to a .904 save percentage after his strong stretch of play.
It’s a great way to open the new year for the Hurricanes, now riding a four-game win streak as they continue to slowly climb the standings. As of now, they rank second in the Metropolitan Division in both points and points percentage.
They’ll be back in action tomorrow against the Washington Capitals, for the start of a back-to-back set.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM JANUARY
- Hurricanes trending in right direction to enter new year 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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