The Carolina Hurricanes returned to Raleigh in style with a 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, Dec. 15.
The Canes (17-6-6) hit the ground running by putting a pair of first-period goals past Seattle netminder Philipp Grubauer and never looked back. The Kraken entered the evening with a 9-3-1 away record, but Carolina secured the victory in just their 10th home game out of 29 so far this year.
Seattle also played aggressively out of the gate but struggled to muster much offense against goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov and the Hurricanes. Carolina outshot Seattle 14-4 in the opening period, and Kochetkov stayed locked in when the Kraken got going in the latter two.
“You really know how it’s gonna go, but we were sharp,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “[We were] all over it — which was great — all night. They had a couple of shifts in the third once they got that lucky [goal], but overall it was a solid game.”
Kochetkov continued his stellar rookie campaign with Carolina even though the Kraken ended his record-setting shutout streak. Up until center Ryan Donato’s second-period goal, Kochetkov went over 151 minutes without allowing a goal, the longest streak by a rookie goalie in franchise history and sixth-longest for all franchise goalies.
On the other end of the ice, the Hurricanes peppered Grubauer and the Kraken early and often. Right wing Andrei Svechnikov opened the floodgates at the 9:50 mark, swooping in on a Seattle turnover and driving the puck into the net.
Later in the period, Carolina’s fourth line teamed up to double the lead with some smooth interplay between center Jack Drury, right wing Stefan Noesen and center Derek Stepan. After faithfully putting in effort so far without a goal on the season, Stepan was grateful to finally find twine.
“Me and Noesen, we’ve had some fun together with it,” Stepan said. “That’s the most important thing: if you can really start to beat yourself up, it just gets worse. There was a stretch where it was for me, so it’s good to get one and carry the momentum.”
Noesen tacked his name onto the scoresheet in the second period by converting on a penalty shot. Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson slashed Noesen on the tail end of a 1v1 scoring opportunity to grant Carolina a chance to go up 3-0. Noesen capitalized on that chance by blasting a courageous slapshot past Grubauer on the penalty shot.
“A couple years ago in Wilkes-Barre[/Scranton] I did that and went five for five,” Noesen said. “If he dropped his glove I was going there. If not maybe go five-hole or make a move, but he dropped his glove. I don’t think anyone was going to stop that one.”
The Kraken finally got its offense going in the third. The Hurricanes looked rejuvenated coming out of the second intermission but gradually lost steam while Seattle tried to make the game interesting down the stretch.
Kochetkov had perhaps his only low moment of the night with 10:46 to go when Seattle right wing Daniel Sprong clipped a goal past the goalie to pull the Kraken within one. Seattle continued to press in the dying minutes, but it was too little, too late as Carolina finalized the win.
The Canes will be back in action at home on Saturday, Dec. 17 against the Dallas Stars. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
