While the recent past has not been kind to the Carolina Hurricanes, they got a reminder that the future is bright on Thursday night. The Canes’ youth led the charge in a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the New York Rangers in PNC Arena.
Rookie forward Sebastian Aho scored two power-play goals in a third period the Canes (27-27-10) entered trailing 3-2, rookie forward Valentin Zykov scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game and forward Jeff Skinner picked up his team-leading 21st goal against the Rangers (43-23-2). Goalie Cam Ward, making his first start since last Friday, stopped 40 of 43 Rangers shots for the win in his first start since last Friday.
“I was excited to play tonight,” Ward said. “It was tough challenge against a very tough team, and for the most part I felt really comfortable. You’ve got to step up and try to keep the guys in the game early. You look at their three goals on the power play; we were kind creating our own problems. We started to correct that in the second intermission, and then they started to do the same. They created the penalties and our power play really stepped up.”
The Canes’ stout penalty kill held up for most of an early two-man advantage for the Blueshirts, but with about 20 seconds left on it, Rangers forward Derek Stepan picked up a loose puck behind the net off a scramble and fed forward Chris Kreider in front, who flicked the puck over a sprawling Ward for a 1-0 lead.
The Canes tied the game with just under seven minutes to go in the first on a nice play. Forward Victor Rask forced a turnover and found Skinner all alone in the slot. Skinner put on a nice head-fake move to fool Raanta and beat him on the backhand and tie the game at one.
Directly after Skinner’s goal, Zykov made sure his debut would be a memorable one with his first NHL goal to give the Canes a 2-1 lead. Zykov picked up the rebound of an Aho shot and slid a backhander past Raanta. Zykov showed off his power-forward skill set prior to the goal, forcing a turnover in the corner to set up the play.
“I tried not to think ‘I’m going to score or do something special’,” Zykov said. “I was thinking just to play the game.”
The Rangers power play struck again less than halfway through the second, when forward Mika Zibanejad picked up a rebound in the crease and put it behind Ward to make it 2-2.
New York kept its man advantage rolling late in the second on a rare off night for Carolina’s penalty kill; a clearing attempt from Canes forward Jay McClement found Zibanejad’s tape in the slot, and he snapped a shot off Ward’s blocker and in to make it 3-2.
“Our penalty kill’s been good all year,” head coach Bill Peters said. “Recently here, it’s struggled a little bit. It’s about clearing the puck. We’ve failed to clear, so we’re in our zone too much and we can’t get guys off when they get a little bit tired. We’ll address that and work on that.”
The Canes’ power play took its turn a little over halfway through the third as rookie forward Sebastian Aho tied the game at three with a bomb of a shot from the point on the man advantage. Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault challenged the play for goalie interference, but it was upheld for a 3-3 tie. Aho did not score until the 14th game of the season; his performance tonight gives him 20 goals in his last 50 games.
“The first 20 games were pretty tough for me,” Aho said. “After that, I got more comfortable and got some more confidence. I’ve got used to the smaller rink and playing fast, and after that I played better.”
Aho and the Canes power play struck again with 7:32 to play, as the young Finn finished off a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play from forwards Elias Lindholm and Jordan Staal, firing a one-timer from the right circle for his 20th goal of the season and a 4-3 lead.
“That was, first of all, a good shot from Faulker [defenseman Justin Faulk],” Aho said. “After that, a good box out from Lindy [Lindholm] and a couple nice passes; I just put it into the empty net. It was a great goal from those guys.”
After a long recent stretch of frustrating performances and lack of offense, the Canes were able to turn up the heat in the third period and find a way to comeback and win tonight. Clawing back into the playoff chase is an extreme longshot, but the team is still playing for pride the rest of the way, showing a lot of resilience tonight.
“It’s a good group in that room,” Peters said. “There’s good people; they care. It has been a tough stretch here, 100 percent right on that. Tonight we found a way.”
The Canes will be back in action at PNC Arena on Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
