After a couple of days of rest, the Carolina Hurricanes returned to home ice where they crushed the Edmonton Oilers 6-3. Only three Cane skaters didn’t register a point in what was an all-around dominant team performance. A four-goal first period powered Carolina to victory which included center Jack Drury’s first of the season.
The Hurricanes (11-7-0) have now won two games in a row, while it becomes another loss for the struggling Oilers (5-12-1) who can’t seem to do anything right to start the 2023-2024 season. Surprisingly, each team used their two goalies, although for different reasons — Carolina’s pairing having a better performance than their counterparts.
The Hurricanes had numerous chances early on in the first period. Left wing Teuvo Teravainen rang the post on an early powerplay, but the scoresheet remained 0-0. It wasn’t long after that the Canes got their first of six goals on the night and the floodgates opened. A deflected shot from defenseman Jalen Chatfield found right wing Jesper Fast at the back post where he tapped in his first goal in over a month. The Martintook-Staal-Fast line dominated the first 40 minutes and finally got rewarded with some puck luck.
“Yeah, it has been a while,” Fast said. “Our line has been doing a lot of good stuff out there but haven’t gotten the bounces so far this year, but if we keep working hard and playing that way, they will come.”
Defenseman Dmitry Orlov forced a turnover on the backcheck and sprung Drury and left wing Michael Bunting for a two-on-one opportunity on the Oilers’ side of the ice. Passing the puck back and forth, the two doubled the Canes’ lead 35 seconds later when Drury’s shot trickled over the goal line.
Minutes later, Teravainen would get his 10th goal of the season, the first on the Canes to do so this season, from a backhand dish from center Sebastian Aho. That goal marks the 205th time the two have combined for a goal, giving them the most goal combinations by any duo in franchise history.
In a four-goal first period, Teravainen and Aho’s linemate would cap off the Canes’ great start with his second-straight game with the game-winning goal. Center Seth Jarvis found some space on a breakaway and fired a shot that went off the post and into the net — marking his fifth point in the past two games.
Letting in four goals in five minutes was not what the Oilers needed to right their ship and as a result, Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner’s night would end much earlier than anticipated. Although going down 4-0, the Oilers didn’t quit just yet. Five seconds into a powerplay at the end of the first period, left wing Zach Hyman roofed a puck past Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta.
Raanta’s night would end after the first period as the team pulled him from the game for “precautionary reasons”. This gave goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov the opportunity to close out the rest of the game where he saved 13 of 15 shots in relief. Kochetkov looked poised throughout the night, saving chances left and right.
“[Kochetkov] came in and made some good saves there in the third,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
At the start of the second period, the Canes picked up right where they left off and added another goal to extend the lead back to four. Right wing Andrei Svechnikov would find center Martin Necas from below the goal line where Necas would score off his own rebound.
For the majority of the second period, the Hurricanes continued to shut down the Oilers’ top offensive playmakers — the whole team had just four shots in the entire period. Frustration was setting in for the Oilers when Kochetkov wouldn’t budge. However, on a transition play while shorthanded ex-Carolina Hurricane Warren Foegele would lead the rush, which eventually led to the Oilers’ second goal courtesy of defenseman Mattias Ekholm. Hyman would score his second goal of the night just four minutes into the third on a whip-around pass from center Connor McDavid.
With multiple power play opportunities after reducing Carolina’s four-goal lead to two, the Oilers looked to slowly but surely get back into the game and brought the game within one goal.
“You kinda get off what got you there you know,” Brind’Amour said. “They have nothing to lose, so they are throwing caution to the wind”.
Edmonton outshot the Canes in the third period since Carolina was often playing out of their own zone, just trying to not give up any more opportunities. Lots of puck battles along the boards slowed the offensive chances down in the last period.
In his 100th game in a Canes uniform, defenseman Brent Burns would finish the game on a shorthanded empty net goal. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin would tally a secondary assist on the play, giving him 200 total assists throughout his career.
The Hurricanes will have Thanksgiving off, but they are back in action on Friday when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (9-6-5) at home with a puck drop at 8 p.m.
