The Carolina Hurricanes picked up a seventh win in a row tonight, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 at home.
First Period
After a relatively slow start to the game, the Hurricanes ended up in a tough spot, killing a 5-on-3 only seven minutes in. Philadelphia then took advantage of the opportunity, with Travis Konecny burying a rebound off a shot from Matvei Michkov after Carolina couldn’t get a puck out.
The Hurricanes did start to pick up steam in the back half of the frame though, and had a good chance when Jordan Martinook threw the puck to the slot, but it couldn’t find its way in.
But then with about five minutes left in the period, Jack Drury found Jackson Blake with a great behind-the-back, through-the-legs pass to the slot, and Blake beat Aleksei Kolosov, evening the game.
Carolina had a couple more opportunities before the end of the frame, with Seth Jarvis getting a good chance shortly after a faceoff, before Jordan Staal had a point-blank opportunity, but missed wide. So while it wasn’t the greatest opening frame from Carolina, they they built momentum as the period went on, and exited the period tied.
Second Period
The Flyers had a good opportunity early in the second period when Travis Konecny found Emil Andrae, but Pyotr Kochertkov got over to make a big shoulder save.
Then about nine minutes in, Martin Necas got a nice pass over to Eric Robinson, and he put a shot through Kolosov to lift the Hurricanes ahead. Carolina wasn’t done there, and under a minute later, Jordan Martinook managed to bury a rebound in-close to quickly extend the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-1.
Only about four minutes after the Martinook goal though, Owen Tippett roofed a nice shot over Kochetkov, who was deep in his net, pulling the Flyers back to within one.
Carolina did have a power play after that where they couldn’t convert, but it was still a much stronger period from Carolina, who dominated 13-3 in shots.
Third Period
Only about a minute into the third period though, Travis Sanheim carried the puck into Carolina’s end, and with about four members of the Hurricanes all heading towards him, he dished a pass over to Morgan Frost, who scored to tie the game.
But just 29 seconds after that, Sebastian Aho ended up with a breakaway down ice and while he was stopped on a big save by Kolosov, Jack Roslovic was there to bury the rebound to put Carolina right back ahead.
The back-and-forth continued though around the midway mark of the frame, when Travis Konecny forced a turnover on the forecheck and Sean Couturier was able to backhand a shot on net that somehow found its way through Kochetkov, tying the game once again.
Carolina then took a penalty in the final stretch of the third period, giving Philadelphia a great opportunity, but Jordan Martinook did an excellent job drawing a Flyers’ penalty to negate the power play.
Then with the Hurricanes pressing late in Philadelphia’s end, Jesperi Kotkaniemi put the puck on net from the point, and when it didn’t get cleared, Martin Necas shovelled it in to give Carolina the lead with only 31 seconds remaining.
Seth Jarvis buried an empty netter in the dying seconds from there, and the Hurricanes took a 6-4 victory to mark their seventh straight win.
Takeaways
After an okay, but not outstanding start, the Hurricanes completely took over in the back 40 minutes, outshooting the Flyers 27-6 in the second and third periods.
What continues to work with the Hurricanes is that they get consistent efforts, from pretty much every player, in every game. Each line seems to be outplaying their opponent more often than not – with members of all four lines scoring in the win – and their defensive efforts continue to be very consistent.
Martin Necas extended his point streak with a goal and an assist, including the game winner. He’s now reached 20 points in just 11 games. I really wasn’t sure how sustainable the offense would be from the Robinson-Kotkaniemi-Necas line from game-to-game, but so far, they’ve been excellent together.
Jackson Blake also continues to look like he’s going to be poised for a lot of success. He may have four goals and six points in 11 games already, but he’s also involved when he doesn’t have possession, playing with a lot of urgency and breaking up a couple of plays in his own end tonight. It's also good to see him building chemistry with Jack Drury – their line, along with William Carrier, has an opportunity to produce at a much higher rate than a typical fourth line.
Meanwhile it seems like I’m saying it every game, but Jack Roslovic scored yet again. He picked up his seventh tally already tonight, and playing him up on the top line has worked really well. Roslovic has shown throughout his career that he can provide some pretty high-level offense, but it seems like he needs to be in the right situation to do so. Playing with two of the Hurricanes’ best forwards, the team has been maximizing his impact in terms of the offense he’s able to bring.
The chances created by the Martinook-Staal-Jarvis line may not be as pretty, but they had another good game as well. Martinook in particular deserves a lot of praise for drawing that penalty on the forecheck late in the third period. The Flyers would've had a lot of time on the power play to press for the lead, and Martinook drawing the penalty to negate it was key to swing momentum.
A negative to point out from the win, however: Even though many of the goals weren’t on him, Pyotr Kochetkov needs to be a bit better. The fourth goal in particular was a really tough one to allow (especially with the Hurricanes playing as well as they were), and he allowed three goals on six shots across the final two periods.
But regardless, Carolina continues to look excellent early in the year. Riding a 9-2-0 record and a seven-game point streak, they’ll wrap up their homestand on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM NOVEMBER
- Hurricanes dominate Bruins for 8-2 victory, extend win streak to five games
- Hurricanes extend win streak to six games with 4-2 victory over Capitals
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