The Carolina Hurricanes got their mileage up in their third game of the season, traveling over 2,500 miles to Anaheim, California to play the Ducks. Ultimately, the Canes fell 6-3 in a West Coast beatdown.
Lately, West Coast teams have been giving Carolina all it can handle — on Oct. 14, the Canes (2-1-0) struggled to get the win against the Los Angeles Kings, barely grabbing the win after finishing 6-5 in a shootout. The young Ducks (1-1-0) team wanted to shake off their 6-3 blowout loss against the Vegas Golden Nights and Carolina was the victim of its comeback story.
The first period was all Anaheim — the team totaled 11 shots on goal compared to Carolina’s eight. The puck stayed on the Canes’ side of the ice for the majority of the period, meaning that the Carolina defense had its work cut out for itself. Defensemen Dmitry Orlov, Brady Skjei and Jaccob Slavin were all across the ice blocking shots, but the Ducks’ offense was too quick for them.
In the first frame, Anaheim got three shots past goaltender Annti Raanta, who made his season debut during the matchup. The score was 2-0 less than nine minutes into the game, and it was 3-0 by the time the period ended.
Carolina notched its first goal in the second frame when left wing Teuvo Teravainen scored off of a cross-zone pass from Skjei, giving the Canes some much-needed momentum. This didn’t last long though, because Anaheim right wing Frank Vatrano scored his second goal of the game to bring the score to 4-1.
However, Teravainen wasn’t satisfied with one goal, recording his second of the game — and fourth of the season — three minutes into the third period. The score was set on a power play for the Canes, and they capitalized on another power play later in the period. Center Martin Necas cut the score to 4-3, giving some hope to Canes fans staying up late on the East Coast.
The Ducks came back later in the third frame, though, scoring two goals in 40 seconds to bring the final score to 6-3 as Vatrano got his third goal of the game, completing the hat trick. Raanta finished the night with a .826 save percentage, showing some room for improvement as the season continues.
Carolina will stay out on the West Coast to take on San Jose. The matchup is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 17 with puck drop set for 10:30 p.m.
