The Carolina Hurricanes impeached all 20 of the Ottawa Senators they faced by a final “vote” of 8-2 while also snapping a four-game losing skid.
After head coach Rod Brind’Amour offered a stark statement following the team’s 4-1 loss to Ottawa Saturday, saying, “We are better than we are showing right now. That was not acceptable,” the Hurricanes played a much more “acceptable” game.
“It was a pretty solid game all the way, start to finish,” Brind’Amour said. “Nice to see the puck go in. Last couple of weeks it’s been tough. Just wouldn’t find the back of the net. Tonight we were able to capitalize on our chances which was nice.”
The Canes had been generating offense and been stopped by amazing displays of goaltending and sheer bad luck but finally, Carolina got a bit of luck.
It started right off of opening draw and at the bottom of the right circle, Warren Foegele let go what seemed like a harmless wrister, which Senators’ netminder Anders Nilsson stopped, only for it to slowly trickle through him and creep barely over the goal line.
Lady Luck shined once again on the Hurricanes as it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. On the power play, a point shot deflected off a Senators’ defender and right to Martin Necas who slammed home the rebound.
The Hurricanes struck yet again, this time it was Sebastian Aho who stole the puck and converted it into a shorthanded breakaway which he buried past Nilsson. The Ottawa bench had been in uproar as Aho skated up the ice as he had slashed Senators’ Nick Paul’s stick, breaking it, to obtain the puck, but the Hurricanes gladly took the break.
If it hadn’t become obvious that Carolina was raking in the fortune, it was blatantly obvious with Haydn Fleury notching his second career NHL goal on a deflection from a Senators’ stick.
Fleury had previously gone scoreless in 96 career NHL games, registering his first in a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 18 and now he got his second in only his third appearance since then.
That was the last of the crease that Nilsson saw as he was replaced by Craig Anderson after the fourth goal went in.
“It’s how it should look when you are getting a lot of chances,” Brind’Amour said. “You should get a few that bounce your way and I feel that over these last little stretches we’ve played pretty well at times and just nothing. Tonight, it’s not always going to look like that as far as scoring goals, but I feel we got what we deserved tonight.”
Four still wasn’t enough for the Hurricanes and especially not Dougie Hamilton who tied the team’s lead in goals at eight along with Erik Haula. Winning the puck along the boards and sending it into the Ottawa zone, Teuvo Teravainen found Hamilton charging in and Hamilton made no mistake, ringing it in and around the net from the high slot to extend the lead to 5-0.
“We haven’t been scoring a lot of goals in the last couple games and we’ve been losing,” Hamilton said. “It’s good for everyone to get a good feel and just play the right way tonight and we got rewarded for it.”
Ottawa broke Mrazek’s shutout bid as the netminder misplayed a puck behind his net which found its way to Colin White for an easy wrap-around goal.
However, this didn’t deflate the Canes. In fact, five was still not enough for the Hurricanes and it was Aho who found his second of the night on a weird bounce. Joel Edmundson loaded on up and blasted a clapper wide, but the puck ricocheted off of the end boards and right behind Anderson where Aho was positioned to bat it in.
Ottawa still had some fight left and jammed home a second one, with Brady Tkachuk positioned right in the crease to make it a 6-2 game.
Still, as fate would have it, the Canes did reach that lucky number seven. On an extended sequence, Brett Pesce teed up a slapper from the point which got lost in traffic. Joel Edmundson then skated down to the slot, picked it up and fed Ryan Dzingel on the backdoor for an easy goal.
Despite how fitting ending it on the lucky seven would have been, the Canes went out and got an eighth and final goal as Edmundson got his first of the season, ripping a blistering one-timer past Anderson.
“That took a while, but I’m just happy to help my team out,” Edmundson said. “We played a full 60 minutes and if we do that, most nights we’ll get the results we want.”
After their dominant performance, the Canes now head up north to New York to play the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.
Carolina Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teravainen swipes the puck from the Ottawa Senators on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019 in PNC Arena. The Canes beat the Senators 8-2.
