The Carolina Hurricanes’ franchise-record 13-game point streak was snapped Saturday night in PNC Arena, as the Canes fell to the Dallas Stars, 3-0.
The Hurricanes (35-28-14) playoff push took a major hit with the loss, as they now sit six points back on the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with just five games remaining. The Stars (32-35-11) were led by a great performance and shutout from Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen, his third clean sheet of the season.
“I thought everything was a grind,” head coach Bill Peters said. “Everything was hard. Everything was a split-second late, or in the feet offensively. I don’t think we executed as well as we have here recently, but again, a lot of that was due to the fact that they were above us and they had good puck pressure.”
The Canes failed to convert on two good opportunities midway through the opening period. Rookie forward Lucas Wallmark was denied of his first NHL goal by Lehtonen on a breakaway. Carolina followed quickly with a three-on-one opportunity led by forward Jeff Skinner, but failed to get a shot on net.
Carolina had another missed chance later in the first. On its first power play of the night, forward Teuvo Teravainen found forward Elias Lindholm with a pass across the front of the net. Lindholm had a huge window to score, but failed to control the puck and never got a shot off.
The first period was sloppy for both teams, with the Hurricanes getting just seven shots on goal. Dallas was just as loose with the puck, putting just six shots on the net. Canes’ forward Jordan Staal said that not much was happening for either team in the opening 20 minutes.
“The puck was bouncing a lot,” Staal said. “I think there was like seven shots for each team that first period, so there wasn’t a whole lot going on. The puck was bouncing between teams. We had to take control if we wanted to win and we didn’t. It’s a tough one to take.”
The Stars opened up the scoring six minutes into the second period. Forward Jason Spezza sniped the puck past the glove of Canes goalie Cam Ward, finding the top corner of the net to take a 1-0 lead. Forward Remi Elie fed a pass off the boards up to Spezza, who calmly slotted a hard wrister into the net.
Ward rebounded well following the goal, coming up with seven saves to close out the second period. Two of these saves came in the final 15 seconds of the period. Ward linked together back-to-back stops, denying a slap shot from defenseman Esa Lindell and a backhanded effort from forward Brett Ritchie off the rebound to keep the Canes deficit at one goal.
Another huge stop for Ward kept the Canes in the game in the third period. Spezza was on a clear breakaway, but Ward made a huge pad save to deny the Stars forward his second goal of the game and keep Carolina within one.
The Canes failed to convert on another great scoring chance midway through the third period. Defenseman Brett Pesce carried the puck between the circles and fired a shot that was batted away by Lehtonen. The rebound fell to forward Sebastian Aho, who whiffed on the puck to end the threat.
“I think we had a couple of pretty good looks inside in some high-quality areas,” Skinner said. “I think they did a decent job of limiting those. We just couldn’t seem to get that one goal.”
Peters pulled Ward for an extra skater with over two minutes left in the game, a decision that would cost the Canes. Shortly after Ward went to the bench, Stars defenseman John Klingberg launched a shot the length of the ice that found the empty net to make it 2-0. Dallas would strike again on the open goal, this time from forward Devin Shore.
The Canes will get right back at it, traveingl to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins Sunday afternoon. Every game is critical for Carolina down the stretch as it sits outside the playoffs looking in, but the team is focused.
“Another big game tomorrow,” Skinner said. “A quick turnaround here for us. Going on the road it’s going to be a good test. That’s obviously a good team, but we are going to be ready for them and we’ve got to try and get off to a good start.”
