The Carolina Hurricanes bounced back into the win column with a 3-0 shutout of the New York Islanders on Saturday, Dec. 10.
The Canes (15-6-6) whittled down the Islanders (17-12-0) via a slew of step-up performances. Most notably, center Paul Stastny netted his first goal as a Hurricane to open the scoring.
Stastny already had six assists to his name since signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Carolina in the offseason, but finally found twine in game number 26. Stastny finally made it onto the scoresheet, but this result arose from a team effort more than anything.
“That was probably one of our best games of the year, if not the best,” said defenseman Brady Skjei. “It was just the way we want to play: forechecking, not giving them many chances and really taking the game to them, playing below the goal line. It was a textbook [example of] how we want to play and it’s a great effort by us.”
The Hurricanes offense resurged at a great time in the absence of center Sebastian Aho, who missed the game due to a lower-body injury. Carolina called up defenseman Max LaJoie from the Chicago Wolves, but the Canes rolled out 11 forwards and seven defenseman against the Islanders. Despite the lopsided lines, Carolina got the job done.
“I’m really proud of the group to be quite honest,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Obviously, we’re missing a ton of good, quality players that we count on every night. The other guys, it wasn’t like we stepped up. I just think everybody played really well, understood what we had to do to win this game and pretty much did it.”
The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead into the second intermission thanks to Stastny’s goal before padding their lead in the third period. Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi doubled the Canes advantage by redirecting defenseman Brent Burns’ shot past Isles netminder Ilya Sorokin.
A little less than five minutes later, right wing Stefan Noesen and left wing Jordan Martinook went for a wrap-around shot before dishing the puck to center Jordan Staal for an easy tap-in.
The Canes defense made goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov’s night easier by clamping down on the Islanders offense. New York managed just 16 shots compared to Carolina’s 29.
“I didn’t see much [from Kochetkov] which is great, to be honest,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s one of those games where I don’t know if we gave up too many grade-A chances, maybe one of the first. I loved the third period. I loved that we’re up by one and just put the hammer down and kept playing our game.”
The Hurricanes will wrap up their six-game road trip on Tuesday, Dec. 13 with a visit to Detroit against the Red Wings. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
