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The Carolina Hurricanes extended their winning streak to four games last night, with a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
Andrei Svechnikov opened the scoring for the Hurricanes only about a minute in, coming down on a rush and making a move to the front of the net, then beating Jordan Binnington with a great shot. Svechnikov wasn’t done there, and about six minutes later, he buried a rebound that came right off a faceoff, extending the lead. It was a strong first period for Carolina, generating the bulk of the quality chances in the frame, and while they did have to kill a penalty before the end of the period, their PK gave up essentially no chances and the Hurricanes held a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes.
Ex-Hurricane Justin Faulk got St. Louis on the board four minutes into the second frame though, taking a pass from Josh Leivo to score. However, the Hurricanes completely took over the period afterwards, outshooting St. Louis 18-9, and they were rewarded later on, with Sebastian Aho burying a puck at the side of the net to reinstate the two-goal lead.
Frederik Andersen was forced to come up with some huge saves early in the third period as the Hurricanes killed a penalty but Carolina took advantage afterwards, with Seth Jarvis capitalizing off a brutal turnover from Colton Parayko to make it a 4-1 game. The Blues did end up putting together a better frame and outshot the Hurricanes 16-6, but Carolina cruised to the win.
It was a pretty complete effort from the Hurricanes, aside from maybe a bit of slow third period. They completely outchanced the Blues through the first 40 minutes and Jordan Binnington was a key reason the Hurricanes didn’t have a bigger lead through two periods.
Andrei Svechnikov snapping his goalless streak was great to see. It’s not like he hasn’t been producing at all, averaging assist-per-game numbers for the last a little while. At the same time though, one of the team’s best scorers going 19 games without a goal isn’t ideal.
Frederik Andersen was also good again though, stopping 35 shots in the win. Of his 11 starts since returning in January, he’s been rock solid in about eight of them.
It marks the fourth straight win for the Hurricanes, and 11th win over their last 12 games. Another plus for the Hurricanes was the fact that the New Jersey Devils dropped a winnable home game against the Montreal Canadiens last night, meaning the Hurricanes are now five points up on the Devils for top spot in the Metropolitan Division, with a game in hand.
The Hurricanes will be back in action on Friday, when they face the Ottawa Senators.
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