Backstopped by a near-flawless performance in net from goalie Eddie Lack, the Carolina Hurricanes won a tightly-contested game, 3-1, over the Minnesota Wild at PNC Arena Thursday night.
The win gives the Canes (29-27-12) points in their last five games (3-0-2). Lack played phenomenal in his first start in five games. The Swedish netminder put up arguably his best performance of the season, stopping 30 of 31 Wild (43-20-6) shots and making several ten-bell stops, particularly throughout a third period that was tied until the late stages.
“I felt pretty good out there,” Lack said. “I saw the puck well. It wasn’t always pretty technically and everything like that, but I felt like I battled and it’s two huge points for us.”
The Canes got off to a fast start courtesy of their power play in this game; forward Derek Ryan chipped in the rebound of a point shot by defenseman Noah Hanifin for a 1-0 lead less than five minutes in.
“A little garbage goal there for sure,” Ryan said. “We’re just talking about pucks and bodies to the net against pretty much everyone we’re playing. Even moreso when you’re playing against a 6-foot-3 or however tall he is goalie and he’s obviously been playing a lot of good hockey this season too. You’ve just got to get bodies to the net there and whack in some garbage goals.”
Lack made a sharp stop just over halfway through the period to keep Carolina in the lead, denying none other than former Canes captain Eric Staal off the rush with a blocker save.
“I actually talked to Jordan [Staal] before the game and he said ‘If Eric’s coming down, he’s going high glove for sure,’” Lack said. “So, I was a little bit prepared for it. It was a good save and it got me going.”
Things did not go nearly as well for the Canes on their second man advantage of the game. Carolina turned the puck over at the offensive blueline, and on the ensuing Wild rush, forward Mikko Koivu feathered a pass between two Canes defenders to forward Mikael Granlund down low. Granlund roofed a shot to tie the game at one with a shorthanded goal.
The Wild came inches from taking the lead less than a minute into the third, but Lack sprawled out and made a ridiculous glove save on Minnesota forward Charlie Coyle along the goal line to keep it knotted at one.
Lack continued to shine with less than five minutes to go, making three point-blank saves in a row off a flurry of chances for the Wild in front to keep Minnesota from taking the lead.
“Eddie made some big saves,” head coach Bill Peters said. “He made a sequence of three saves there about the four minute mark. It was a wonderful job in a 2-1 game I think at the time, or it might have even been 1-1 still. So he was big tonight.”
The Canes finally broke the stalemate with just over three minutes to go in the third period. Forward Victor Rask took a pass from forward Elias Lindholm along the end boards, cut in towards the crease with a power move and slipped a shot through Dubnyk’s legs to put Carolina up 2-1. The Canes fought through a game where it was tough to find offense against a strong opponent and found a way to get it done at the end.
“It was good,” Peters said. “It was a tight game through 40. There wasn’t much going on, we had a powerplay goal, they had a shorthanded goal. We had most of our offense on the power play, not a lot 5-on-5. They defend very well. It was a dogfight out there.”
Forward Teuvo Teravainen iced the game for the Canes with an empty-net goal with 1:26 left as the Wild pulled Dubnyk for an extra skater.
Despite the five-game point streak, a miracle playoff run remains unlikely. In spite of that, the Canes’ players are holding out hope, and do not abide by the notion that the team is simply playing out the string and has “nothing to play for,” and it certainly did not look like a team with nothing to play for against Minnesota.
“I don’t know if we don’t have anything to play for,” Ryan said. “We’re obviously not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. I think anytime you’re playing in the NHL you have a lot to play for. We’re trying to keep that mindset and also the mindset that if we really string together some wins here you never know what can happen. I think we’ve been playing some really hockey lately, and if we can continue to do that, who knows.”
The Canes will wrap up their three-game homestand with a visit from the Nashville Predators to PNC Saturday night.
