In the eighth round of the shootout, in his first game back, Justin Williams returned to play the role of hero as the Carolina Hurricanes bested the New York Islanders 2-1 at PNC Arena Sunday evening.
After losing their last three in a row, the Hurricanes knew they were desperate for a win. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour decided Williams was ready to rejoin the lineup and swapping places with Jordan Martinook on the fourth line, Williams made his return.
“I was nervous the whole game, to be honest,” Williams said. “It was a playoff game out there, that’s what it felt like.”
There are things in hockey you can’t measure. The intangibles like grit, chemistry and drive to name a few, and there is no denying that when Williams is on the ice, the team plays and responds better and it was evident in the win tonight.
The Hurricanes had a pop in their step early and it was one of the Canes’ constant forces, Andrei Svechnikov, that found the back of the net first.
“We can’t have any choices,” Svechnikov said on the importance of the game. “We have to win right now and you have to win the next one for sure.”
Only 19 years old, Svechnikov has shown a lot of maturity and development on the ice in only his second season. It is evident in the way he plays and the way he carries himself.
The play all started with Jordan Staal, who laid a big hit on Jordan Eberle to regain possession of the puck in the Isles’ zone. The puck was then picked up by Nino Niederreiter, who dropped it off in the high slot for Brett Pesce, who passed it across to Svechnikov for the one-timer.
The shot struck the stick of Islanders’ defenseman Noah Dobson, breaking it, but changing the trajectory of the puck enough to fool Thomas Greiss. With the assist, Pesce recorded his 100th career NHL point.
The Canes controlled pace through the first period and into the second, but the team couldn’t add onto its lead. The team failed to capitalize on both of its power-play chances but kept it even on special teams by going a perfect 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
The Canes’ best opportunity to extend the lead came off a Pesce feed right to Brock McGinn who had a wide-open backdoor tap-in that he forked barely wide.
As the second period was winding down, Carolina came up with its second big penalty kill, but the Islanders maintained offensive pressure and capitalized off a lucky bounce that landed just out of the reach of James Reimer, and it was their captain, Anders Lee, who managed to find the equalizer with under a minute to go.
The remainder of the game became a grueling battle for ice space and scoring opportunities, but the real stars of the show were the netminders on either end. Both Greiss and Reimer stood on their heads time in and time out as they were both bombarded with quality scoring chances.
“Any pressure point, any time in the game, whether it’s the first minute of the game or the last minute of the shootout, you know what you need to do to be successful,” Reimer said. “You can’t let any of the emotions or the moment get to you.”
The game eventually went all the way down to the shootout. Svechnikov went up as the first skater and buried it, but the Islanders responded with a goal from Mathew Barzal. Teuvo Teravainen scored in the third round to put all the pressure on the final New York skater, but Anthony Beauviller held his own.
What followed was four more rounds and eight skaters all with a chance to end the game in the semi-sudden-death format, but nobody could find the twine, so it all came down to the eighth-round and Justin Williams hopped over the boards.
“I don’t think you can calm yourself down at that point,” Williams said. “You do your best to breathe and take a deep breath and say ‘Here we go!’ I said it even before the game, ‘Trust yourself, trust your abilities, trust your instincts and go get it. That’s what got you here and that’s what will get me further.’”
Maybe a little something that helped Williams’ nerves was the roaring ovation he received as soon as his blades touched the ice.
“He’s been out for a long time, so I wasn’t even sure he had been taking breakaways for a long time,” Brind’Amour said. “In hindsight now, I wish I had done it earlier. I kind of forgot that that ovation was going to come.”
Williams scored on a quick wrister and then Reimer denied Lee on the other end to cap off the win for the Hurricanes.
“It was all a conspiracy from the beginning,” Reimer said. “That was the plan. We fooled everyone. No, I mean obviously I would have liked to have made the save on Beauviller and have it over a lot sooner, but it is what it is. When Willy scored, you know you have to make that save.”
The Hurricanes have one more game on Tuesday, Jan. 21 against the Winnipeg Jets before they take off 10 days for the All-Star break.
“Everybody’s in it and everybody understands these points are so valuable,” Brind’Amour said. “The push has been on for a little while. It’s kind of like last year for us where the push was like a month ago and it kind of keeps going. We need those points.”
Hurricanes right wing Justin Williams dribbles the puck around the goal versus the Islanders on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 at PNC Arena. Williams had 3 shots in 18 shifts and score the game winning goal during the shootout to lead the Canes to a 2-1 win.
