The Carolina Hurricanes — or as they appeared in PNC Arena on Saturday, Jan. 29, the Hartford Whalers — ousted the New Jersey Devils in a 2-1 win. Goaltender Antti Raanta carried Carolina to victory with 24 saves.
Raanta returned to the lineup after suffering an upper-body injury in a comeback victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 1. In his first game back in the crease, Raanta thoroughly earned the win, accumulating more saves against the Devils (15-23-5) than the Canes (30-9-2) had shots.
“Obviously it’s been a little while since I played last,” Raanta said. “Everything this week since Tuesday has been just the preparation for today. It’s been a lot of hard work and it’s great to get rewarded in the game.”
On the offensive end, left wing Jordan Martinook put his name back on the scoresheet. With a spinning backhand shot to open the scoring in the first period, Martinook found the net for the first time since the Hurricanes’ season-opener against the New York Islanders. Martinook was hobbled by injuries in addition to going through COVID-19 protocol for most of December and around half of January, so his second goal of the season provided even more reason to celebrate his recovery.
“It’s just one thing after another for him,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. ”It’s nice to see him contribute. Come in, do what he does and get rewarded.”
It wasn’t all smiles and cheering for the Canes in the first 40 minutes, however. The first period was by no means perfect, but Carolina at least held a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission thanks to a determined effort to score by right wing Andrei Svechnikov and an opportunistic goal in transition by Jesper Boqvist. Conversely, the second period featured a Devils squad fighting to find an equalizer and the Hurricanes tightly holding onto their one-goal lead.
New Jersey repeatedly attacked Raanta’s net, outshooting the Canes 25-23 for the evening and 22-13 in the first two periods. Despite some shoddy defending in places by Carolina, the Devils couldn’t beat Raanta to pull even on the scoreboard.
Brind’Amour lit a fire under his team in the final 20 minutes as the Hurricanes did well to close out the game. Outshooting the Devils 10-3 in the third helped take the pressure off Raanta. Even though Carolina couldn’t find twine on several empty-net opportunities in the waning moments, it came away with the win ahead of another home game against the San Jose Sharks on the horizon.
“We’re gonna try to get refocused on the opponent,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s a certain way we need to play, like in that third. We’d like to see a little more of that consistency.”
The Hurricanes will return to their red and white jerseys on Sunday, Jan. 30 against the Sharks. Puck drops at 5 p.m.
