The Carolina Hurricanes continued its six-game road trip on Thursday night, traveling up to Calgary, Canada to take on the Flames. Carolina (4-2-0) extended its winning streak to two games with a 4-2 win and handed Calgary (5-1-1) its first loss at home.
Calgary sits on top of the Pacific Division standings with 11 points, but the Canes ended the Flames’ six-game point streak with an electric performance from center Martin Necas, who now has eight points in his past five games. Starting between the pipes for the Hurricanes was netminder Pyotr Kotchetkov and the Russian did not disappoint, stopping 30 of the 32 shots on goal by Calgary.
The first frame saw the Hurricanes get on the scorecard first, courtesy of center Seth Jarvis. Halfway through the first period, and while on the man advantage, center Sebastian Aho fed Jarvis and the latter snuck the puck past Calgary goaltender Dan Vlader. Aho now has a five-game point streak with the assist. Carolina now sits at sixth in the NHL for the man advantage with a 29.41 power play percentage, just behind the New Jersey Devils at 29.73%.
The Canes wasted no time in the second period to get back on the scoreboard as center Jack Roslovic scored his third goal of the season 41 seconds into the frame. Aho won a faceoff in the Calgary zone, allowing for right wing Andrei Svechnikov and defenseman Brent Burns to feed the puck over to Roslovic, who was sitting next to Vladar. Suddenly up 2-0, Carolina was on fire.
They continued this momentum a minute later for Necas’ goal of the night. Necas collected a long rebound from defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and whipped it past Vladar, extending the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-0 and collecting his 100th career NHL goal. The Flames got on the board at the end of the second frame with a goal from defenseman Jake Bean, his first of the season.
Heading into the final frame up 3-1, the Canes just needed to stay in the right mindset and not allow the Flames to play catch-up. All around, Carolina had quicker puck movement and a better net-front presence than Calgary and the Canes were able to kill two penalties in the third period.
Center Jonathan Huberdeau scored Calgary’s final goal of the night a little over halfway through the period, sneaking a wrist shot past Kochetkov to make it 3-2. The netminder had the last laugh though, gaining an assist on the final Carolina goal.
With an empty net down the ice, Kotchetkov sent the puck around the board to the Flame’s zone where left wing Eric Robinson battled with a Calgary player for control. Robinson won out and scored his first of the season on the empty net, bringing the final score to 4-2 in favor of the Hurricanes.
Carolina will stay on the road and travel to Seattle, Washington to take on the Kraken. The game is set for Saturday, Oct. 26 with puck drop planned for 10 p.m.
