The Carolina Hurricanes fell 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild at PNC Arena on Sunday evening as the Wild spoiled Carolina’s opportunity to collect nine out of a possible 12 points during its home stretch. Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson saved 40 shots and left-wing Kirill Kaprizov notched a hat trick in the victory.
After statistically dominating the first two periods of play, the Canes (25-15-5) trailed the Wild (20-21-5) by a goal. Carolina had scored just one goal on 31 shots, while the Wild had managed to get two goals past goaltender Antti Raanta on only 10 shots.
About midway through the third period, left-wing Michael Bunting was able to get a wrist shot past Gustavsson’s blocker, but a costly turnover led to center Joel Eriksson Ek stuffing the go-ahead goal past Raanta just a few moments later.
“We weren’t great in the third and then we tied it up,” said head coach Rod Brind’amour. “Had a couple of mental errors and then they made you pay. Good for them, they did what they needed to do. We didn’t execute there.”
To start the game, there were early chances for both teams, but Carolina dominated play and tested Gustavsson early. However, he wasn’t allowing any second-chance opportunities. On the other side of the ice, Raanta didn’t see a shot on goal for the first 11 minutes until defenseman Jake Middleton sent a puck on net. The home team was doing everything but scoring early; the forecheck was in full force, and the Canes controlled the neutral zone.
The Hurricanes were finally able to find the back of the net on a skillful keep-in, where defenseman Dmitry Orlov made a soccer-like move to keep the puck in at the blue line. This led to the stick of center Jack Drury, who passed it over to left-wing Stefan Noesen. Noesen then delivered a pass to center Martin Necas, who sent a one-timer past Gustavsson, giving Carolina the lead.
With time dwindling in the first period, the Wild were able to get a late-period equalizer. Kaprizov redirected a shot from the point by defenseman Alex Goligoski. The first period ended with Carolina outshooting Minnesota 18-3, but the game was tied at one apiece.
“Yeah, first period we needed more,” Brind’amour said. “You pretty much do everything you’re supposed to, the way we wanted to do it. Get out opportunities and come out of there tied. That was probably deflating a little bit.”
The second frame of the game opened and Carolina was able to get its second power play early on. The man advantage generated chances throughout the night but finished 0-4 and appeared to miss right wing Andrei Svechnikov, who was absent from the contest due to an upper-body injury.
“I thought we had a lot of grade A’s [on the power play],” said center Sebastian Aho. “I felt especially on the first two power plays we had a lot of them. You score one of those and it is a whole nother story.”
An offensive zone penalty on Bunting led to four-on-four play for 49 seconds, then flowed into a Wild power play. Carolina killed off the minute and some change of the power play, but moments after Bunting left the box, Kaprizov struck again and scored his second goal of the night, giving Minnesota its first lead of the game.
Again, Carolina tallied a lot of shots in the period but ended up trailing.
“Definitely was a frustrating [game],” Aho said. “The first period I thought we were flying, we had a lot of good looks [throughout the game], just couldn’t score. Should have probably done a better job of not getting frustrated and trusting that it will come. We definitely had some looks every period, and at the end, as well to tie the game and win the game. They were selling out for blocking shots. Their goalie played an unreal game.”
Brind’amour made line changes to start the third period, aiming to generate something that could result in the puck finding the back of the net. About midway through the frame, the crowd started to erupt, and shortly after, Bunting sent his sixth shot of the game blazing past Gustavsson to tie it at two a piece.
The story seemed to stay the same as Carolina’s momentum was deflated shortly after when a failed clear out of the defensive zone led to Erikkson Ek stuffing his rebound into the back of the net.
Carolina’s late-period surge failed as Kaprizov scored an empty-net goal to cap off his hat trick, and a minute later, Middleton added another empty-net goal to cement the win.
“In the third period we kinda just were frustrated, and angry, and flat,” said center Jordan Staal. “We were just okay at the end, still had a chance, but we found a way to beat ourselves there.”
The Hurricanes missed out on an opportunity to jump into second in the Metropolitan standings, as the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers both lost their recent games.
The Canes will have a few days off before they go on the road to face off against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, Jan. 24. It will be a 7:30 p.m. puck drop and broadcast on TNT.
