The Carolina Hurricanes were defeated 4-2 by the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night at PNC Arena in the first contest of a crucial five-game homestand for the point-starved club.
A poorly played second period full of mostly sloppy play cost the Canes (3-6-4), who gave up three goals in a roughly eight-minute stretch to the Ducks (7-5-3). Despite picking up its play considerably, Carolina couldn’t catch Anaheim, thanks in large part to a four-point night from Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg.
“Three goals — thats a big lead,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said. “They [three-goal leads] went away a lot early in the year around the league. I don’t think they’re going to be going away as readily moving forward now that we’re in the middle of November. Those are mistakes that end up hurting you.”
Anaheim forward Ryan Kesler broke the ice in the second, following a scoreless opening period, as a defensive mistake cost the Canes. Carolina defenseman Klas Dahlbeck failed to get his body or his stick on Kesler, who was positioned in the slot and easily put a pass from Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano past Canes netminder Cam Ward.
Silfverberg made it 2-0 after he corralled a puck that bounced off the end boards and fired it in the net before Ward could get across from the opposite side of his crease.
The Canes’ miserable second period continued as Silfverberg scored his second goal after Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce turned the puck over at the offensive blueline. Silfverberg took the puck down the ice on a partial breakaway and beat Ward blocker side on a play Ward would have liked another chance at.
“They’re a good team,” Skinner said. “I think we want to try and generate zone time. To do that, you’ve got to get in there and get pucks back and put pressure on their D. We weren’t doing enough of that, I don’t think. Too many one and dones — getting a shot and then we were back on our heels and they were coming back down on us.”
Teravainen stopped the bleeding for Carolina with five minutes remaining in the period, deflecting a shot from defenseman Jaccob Slavin into the net to make it 3-1.
“We were pressing [earlier in the period],” Skinner said. “Towards the end of the second there, we kind of picked it up. You like to get that sort of sense of urgency and push from the start of the game; it’s something we’ve got to work on. We’re getting pucks inside, I think that’s the difference.”
Carolina pulled within one just a few minutes into the third period thanks to forward Victor Rask’s fifth goal of the season, set up by Skinner for his team-leading 13th point of the season.
“Anytime you can do that and sustain the offensive zone time that we did, you’re going to get some opportunities,” Skinner said. “For us it was just a matter of putting one more in there. It’s good to get that push at the end, but I think we’ve just got to bear down a little bit more.”
The Canes pushed for the equalizer but could never find it despite creating several quality chances. With Ward pulled for an extra attacker, Kesler scored an empty-net goal to seal the game, 4-2.
