The Carolina Hurricanes bested the Colorado Avalanche in a 2-0 barn burner in PNC Arena on Thursday, March 10.
The possible Stanley Cup finals preview featured the NHL’s top two teams by points percentage, but Carolina (40-12-5) ended up supplanting Colorado (41-13-5) as the league’s best in that category by the end of the night.
Defenseman Ethan Bear’s go-ahead goal broke the deadlock in the third, but the first two periods contained some of the most exciting scoreless hockey all season. The two teams combined for 53 shots on goal in the first two periods, 25 of those coming from the Canes. Center Sebastian Aho iced the result with an empty net goal in the game’s dying moments.
“I thought it was an enjoyable game just for the fact that you could tell the two teams going at it were good quality teams,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “It was an entertaining game for the fans.”
Three days of rest helped Carolina keep up the pace across 60 minutes and every bit of that renewed energy was needed. The Avalanche boast some of the best talents in the league like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen, so the Hurricanes had to be in tip-top shape to contain the Avs’ attack.
The Canes defense rose to the challenge with a handful of great performances. Bear paired up with defenseman Jaccob Slavin to successfully contain Colorado’s top line in addition to Bear’s goal. Slavin made a highlight-reel play of his own when he poked away the puck on a dangerous rush — while lying on his stomach, exemplifying the effort the Hurricanes needed to make time and time again to keep the Avalanche off the board.
“Honestly, just taking away their time and space [is the key],” Bear said. “Playing them tight and not giving them any room to make plays. Those are good players and you just want to keep them in front of you. I think the guys did a good job of doing that tonight.”
Of course, no defensive effort is complete without some steady netminding, which goaltender Antti Raanta provided throughout the game. Raanta stopped all 36 Colorado shots, becoming the first goalie to shut out the Avalanche all season.
“Obviously it’s great, but I couldn’t have done it without the guys in front of me,” Raanta said. “A lot of pucks were coming to the net. A couple of times I could have controlled it a little better, but that’s hockey sometimes. Sometimes the rebounds happen and that’s why we have the d-men there to clear the pucks.”
The Canes will get back to business on Saturday, March 12 when the puck drops in PNC Arena at 3 p.m. against the Philadelphia Flyers. Although their performance against Colorado is a tough act to follow, Raanta and the Canes know they need to stay on top of their game as the postseason inches closer.
“There’s always going to be something to work on,” Raanta said. “… If after the game, you go home and think, ‘Okay, I was perfect,’ that’s where it stops and you start going backwards. I think you always have to realize what happened, what were the situations and just try to learn from those small things.”
