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The Carolina Hurricanes picked up three wins in four days, defeating the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, followed by the New Jersey Devils last night and the San Jose Sharks today.
3-2 SHOOTOUT WIN OVER SENATORS
The Hurricanes outplayed the Senators early on, outshooting Ottawa 15-7 in the first frame. Carolina then struck first early in the second peeiod, with Derek Stepan tipping in a point shot from Brady Skjei. However, the Senators responded quickly, as Nick Paul’s harmless shot took a wild bounce off Tony DeAngelo and found its way in. Ottawa dominated a lot of the second period after that, outshooting Carolina by a huge 20-6 margin, but it remained tied after 40 minutes.
In the third period, Alex Formenton tipped in a shot to give Ottawa the lead, which they held through a lot of the frame, before Nino Niederreiter tied the game with under 3:30 to go, burying a loose puck that got behind Matt Murray. The game wasn’t solved in overtime and went to a shootout, where Andrei Svechnikov and Frederik Andersen were the heroes for Carolina, resulting in a 3-2 shootout win.
2-1 WIN AGAINST DEVILS
Against New Jersey, the Hurricanes opened the scoring halfway through the first frame, as Jordan Martinook managed to backhand a puck through Jon Gillies. Andrei Svechnikov then extended the lead to 2-0 a little later, driving to the net and somehow managing to slide the puck in past Gillies. The Devils managed to cut the lead to a single goal though, as Jesper Boqvist one-timed a puck past Antti Raanta.
After the Hurricanes generated some chances early in the second period, the Devils started to control more of the play in the back half of the frame. However, Antti Raanta made some key saves and the Devils couldn’t convert, as it remained 2-1 after 40 minutes, despite the Devils outplaying Carolina through much of the first 40 minutes. Carolina came out a lot stronger in the third period though and were the better team through the majority of the final frame, hanging on for the 2-1 win.
2-1 WIN OVER SHARKS
Today against the Sharks, Vincent Trocheck got the Hurricanes on the board in the first period, making an entry with speed and firing a shot past James Reimer to give Carolina an early lead. The Sharks did generate some good chances off the rush in the back half of the frame, but Frederik Andersen made some key saves. Carolina came out much stronger in the second period, outshooting the Sharks by an 11-4 margin but couldn’t convert and it remained 1-0 Hurricanes after 40 minutes.
Rudolfs Balcers managed to tie the game for the Sharks early in the third period, controlling a rebound and outwaiting Andersen. After a fairly strong period from the Hurricanes though, Andrei Svechnikov managed to get to a loose puck in front to put Carolina ahead once again, with the Hurricanes hanging on for the win.
So with the three wins in four days, the Hurricanes are riding a four-game winning streak and have gone 16-3-1 over their last 20 games. Carolina remains first place in the Eastern Conference in points percentage.
The Hurricanes did rely on their goaltending over the three wins, as they only scored seven goals during the stretch and managed just 81 shots, an average of 27 shots per game. In turn, the duo of Andersen and Raanta allowed just four goals on 92 shots.
That said, the Hurricanes continue to be one of the top teams in the league and continue to find ways to win. They’ll now have a week off, before beginning a four-game road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, Feb. 7.
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