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The Carolina Hurricanes have been able to build some momentum for themselves following their trade deadline additions, currently riding a three-game win streak after sweeping their back-to-back set this weekend.
Coming off their shutout win over the East-leading Florida Panthers on Thursday, the Hurricanes battled back agains the Toronto Maple Leafs to take a 5-4 shootout win on Saturday, followed by a blowout win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.
5-4 SHOOTOUT WIN OVER LEAFS
Against Toronto on Saturday, the Hurricanes found themselves down by a couple goals early in the second period courtesy of a few turnovers, allowing John Tavares and then William Nylander both to get in alone on goal and score within a span of two minutes, to create a 2-0 deficit. The mistakes continued after that, with Nick Robertson taking a pass from Tavares on a rush to make it a three-goal game a little later.
The Hurricanes did climb back into the game a bit from there though, first with Jordan Martinook burying a loose puck in front to get Carolina on the board. Then late in the second period, Seth Jarvis was able to bury a rebound on a power play late in the frame, pulling the Hurricanes back within one heading into the second intermission.
However, after yet another turnover up ice from the Hurricanes early in the third period, David Kampf got in alone to beat Kochetkov five-hole, putting Carolina right back into a multi-goal deficit. Things looked pretty bleak from there, but with only about a minute and a half to go in regulation, Dmitry Orlov’s pass got through traffic to Sebastian Aho at the side of the net, who was able to pull Carolina back to within one.
Then as the Hurricanes pressed for the tie, with only six seconds remaining, Brent Burns’ shot found its way in off Aho as well, and with two late goals, the Hurricanes had tied the game.
After overtime didn’t solve anything, the game continued to a shootout, where Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal to leave the Hurricanes with the extra point.
7-2 WIN OVER SENATORS
Then last night in Ottawa, Carolina was able to strike first after killing off a penalty, when Brendan Lemieux found Dmitry Orlov for a breakaway in alone to beat Anton Forsberg. Despite the Hurricanes generally outplaying the Senators throughout the opening frame though, Thomas Chabot managed to tie the game later with a great shot to beat Frederik Andersen up high.
Evgeny Kuznetsov put the Hurricanes back ahead on a power play only two minutes into the second period, beating Forsberg over the shoulder, but the Senators quickly responded, with Tim Stutzle making an excellent move to get to the slot, and put a nice shot past Andersen only minutes later to tie the game again. But despite being outshot 14-9 in the frame, with only 22 seconds remaining in the period, Sebastian Aho put a perfect cross-ice pass over to Seth Jarvis, who beat an outstretched Forsberg to put Carolina back on top through two periods.
Carolina then blew the game wide open from there in the third period. First, Jalen Chatfield came down from the point to take a pass and beat Forsberg, extending the lead to 4-2. Then only minutes later, after the Hurricanes were all over Ottawa for a stretch of a couple minutes in the offensive zone, Orlov wired a shot from the point for his second goal of the game, putting the Hurricanes up by three. Carolina wasn’t done, and less than two minutes after that, Sebastian Aho found Jake Guentzel with a long stretch pass, and Guentzel beat Forsberg with a good wrist shot, quickly making it a 6-2 game. Brent Burns added another a few minutes after that, as Carolina stormed past Ottawa to a big 7-2 win to close out the back-to-back set.
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With the wins, the Hurricanes are riding a wave of momentum post-deadline. After the tight loss to the New York Rangers to last week, the Hurricanes took down two quality teams in the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, before closing the back-to-back set with the win in Ottawa.
In the win over Toronto, the Hurricanes looked pretty rough at times, with the second period in particular featuring tons of missteps and poorly-timed turnovers, with the Leafs capitalizing more often than not. However, they showed resilience to battle back late in the second, then complete the comeback with seconds to go in regulation. Of course, Guentzel managing to get the shootout winner for his first ‘goal’ as a Hurricane for the shootout winner was a nice touch. But it's another instance where the Hurricanes were able to get the job done against another contending team in the East.
Then in Ottawa, Carolina was just the better team through a lot of the contest, completely pulling away with the game in the third period. Both games highlight how much more deadly the Hurricanes’ new-look offense can be.
Over their last three games, Carolina’s managed at least four goals in each, totalling 16 over the stretch. Guentzel is up to a goal and five points in four games (plus a shootout winner), while Kuznetsov has two goals and four points over his last three games.
The offense is firing despite the fact the Hurricanes were without Teuvo Teravainen for both games of the back-to-back, and also still missing Jack Drury. With Teravainen out, we saw lines mixed up, eventually resulting in Andrei Svechnikov paired with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin Necas, along with a new-look top line of Jake Guentzel, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis. Meanwhile, Jesper Fast rejoined Jordan Staal and Martinook, and Brendan Lemiuex slotted in on the fourth line.
Guentzel and Kuznetsov create so many more effective options to the top-six. There are tons of possible line combinations Carolina can experiment with and honestly, it’s probably not a bad move to try some of them out now, ahead of the playoffs.
Dmitry Orlov also had a huge game in Ottawa, putting up two goals and four points – he’s now on a three-game point streak as well. Meanwhile, Frederik Andersen continued his dominant stretch since returning, riding a 4-0-0 record and a .949 save percentage.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, the New York Rangers also had a strong weekend, so Carolina remains four points back of the Rangers with 14 games left. The Hurricanes will be back in action tomorrow, as they face the New York Islanders.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM MARCH
- Canes acquire Jake Guentzel from Penguins, Evgeny Kuznetsov from Capitals
- How much do Guentzel and Kuznetsov improve the Hurricanes’ Cup chances?
- Hurricanes shut out Panthers, regain ground in Metro Division race 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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