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The Carolina Hurricanes split their set of back-to-back games this weekend, kickstarting their California road trip with a 6-5 shootout win over the Los Angeles Kings, before falling 6-3 to the Anaheim Ducks last night.
6-5 SHOOTOUT WIN OVER KINGS
Against the Kings on Saturday, Carolina got off to a great start, capitalizing on some bad mistakes from the Kings to go up 3-0 early, off goals from Brent Burns, Sebastian Aho (shorthanded) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Drew Doughty got one back before the end of the period, but Carolina still took a commanding lead to intermission. The second period saw more of a back-and-forth, as the Hurricanes and Kings traded goals, with Brendan Lemieux and Teuvo Teravainen scoring for Carolina, and Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore scoring for Los Angeles, as Carolina retained a 5-3 lead through 40 minutes.
However, the Kings kept pressing in the final frame (really limiting Carolina’s offense), and a goal from Vladislav Gavrikov, followed by a late tally from Anze Kopitar, tied the game. The teams ended up getting to a shootout, where on two separate occasions, the Hurricanes needed to score to keep it going, and managed to do so. Then in the ninth round, Jordan Martinook managed to beat Pheonix Copley with a nice move to the backhand, allowing the Hurricanes to sneak away with the win.
6-3 LOSS TO DUCKS
Last night against Anaheim, the opening frame was a completely different story. The Hurricanes came out flat, and goals from Sam Carrick, Frank Vatrano and Pavel Mintyukov had Carolina down 3-0 through 20 minutes. The Hurricanes did start to show up for the second frame, with Teuvo Teravainen continuing his hot start to the season to get the Hurricanes on the board, but Frank Vatrano’s second goal of the game erased any progress from the Hurricanes.
Carolina did come close to battling back in the final frame, with Teravainen scoring his second goal of the game, before Michael Bunting found Martin Necas with a great pass for a tap-in, cutting the lead to one with about five minutes to go. However, the Ducks managed to hold off Carolina from there, scoring two empty net goals to hand Carolina their first loss of the season.
Despite the Hurricanes picking up two of three wins to start the season, it still feels like they’re really not playing their best hockey.
In the win over the Kings, the Hurricanes arguably weren’t the better team, but really benefited from some costly mistakes and poor goaltending from Los Angeles. Then last night, Carolina got down early, and while the back 40 minutes were pretty solid, it’s hard to erase a three-goal deficit.
Carolina is also having a lot of trouble keeping the puck out of their net, which isn’t normally something they have to worry about. Antti Raanta wasn’t great last night, but in reality, Frederik Andersen was pretty key in the win over Ottawa, and can’t be faulted for many of the goals against the Kings. Yet through three games, Carolina has surrendered 14 goals (and still 12 if you don’t include the empty netters).
The pairing of Dmitry Orlov and Tony DeAngelo isn’t working. Say what you want about plus-minus, but when Orlov is minus-7 through three games, while Brady Skjei is at a plus-4, it does paint a bit of a picture. Jalen Chatfield has been scratched for the last two games now (and barely even played in the one game he did suit up for, with less than five minutes of ice time), and now may be the time to bring him in. It’s always going to take some time to get used to a new defense partner, but Chatfield seems like he could be a big help to the Hurricanes’ issues right now.
The Hurricanes are still 2-1-0, which is a better spot than most of the league. The fact they’ve done so despite not quite looking like themselves is a testament to how talented this team is.
There are some big positives as well, in the fact that so far, the Hurricanes have had no trouble scoring, and Teuvo Teravainen specifically is starting the year red hot after a disappointing 2022-23 season, with four goals already. Again, Carolina did also end up putting together a pretty strong performance over the last two periods against Anaheim last night, outshooting the Ducks by a 27-14 margin in the second and third periods combined.
They’re also going to have a good opportunity to get back on track tomorrow, against the San Jose Sharks, who’ve managed just two goals across their first two games, without reaching even 25 shots in either contest. Hopefully, it’ll be an opportunity for Carolina to put together a full 60-minute effort and leave California with their third win of the year.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- 3 questions for the Hurricanes’ lineup heading into the season
- Hurricanes set season-opening roster
- Hurricanes trade Caleb Jones to Avalanche
- Could this be the Carolina Hurricanes’ year?
- Hurricanes open season with home win over Senators 
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