The Carolina Hurricanes lost in overtime 2-1 to the Nashville Predators in what can be chalked up to a final period collapse.
The Hurricanes (2-2-1) controlled play and a 1-0 lead through the first two periods of play before ultimately giving up the tying goal in the Predators’ (5-1-0) first shot of the third period and eventually the game-winning goal in overtime. Carolina forward Jordan Staal was the sole tally for the Hurricanes on the scoresheet.
“Lots of good things early,” said Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “The goalies were good. We had a couple guys play really well and then we had a couple of guys that were really rusty and that’s what you could see. I liked the start, we came out really well. Our leaders were good early and then we had a lot of gaps. You could see a lot of game rust. That happens. A lot of these guys haven’t played much and you could see for some guys things weren’t clicking.”
The first period was a back-and-forth endeavor that saw the Hurricanes as the more composed team. The forward line combination of Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Staal looked strong and controlled play in the Nashville zone and Aho and Svechnikov looked strong on the puck. The Canes penalty kill looked great and aggressive showing what may be to come in the regular season as they killed off all four penalties they committed with ease.
However, a sour point of contention for Carolina was the other side of special teams, its still failing power play which went zero for four. Although what are presumably three players who will be on the two power play units, forwards Ryan Dzingel and Martin Necas and defenseman Jake Gardiner, were held out due to injury concerns, but the lack of power play production is still concerning.
“There was some good stuff we were trying to do and then some bad execution that we have seen to have happen at times” Brind’Amour said. “There was a couple of good looks and they made some good saves on those and that’s going to be something that we are going to continue to work on and look for those good combos.”
Staal got things kicking in the opening of the second period, springing on a two-on-one rush which he sniped top-corner past Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros.
“There are still some things we obviously need to improve on,” Staal said. “There’s flashes of five-on-five play that we like, but consistency and being able to take over games and take over teams in this preseason hasn’t been there.”
The second period continued with a lot of Hurricanes pressure, but Saros played a strong game. The Predator’s Finnish born goaltender stopped 30 of the Canes 31 shots and made a few athletic saves on multiple two-on-one rushes. Carolina got a similar performance from its number one goaltender Petr Mrazek who was perfect through two periods, stopping all 19 shots he faced.
“I felt pretty good,” Mrazek said. “This was my second game so I was happy to be out there. It’s so different than at practice. I was happy to be out in a game in front of the guys.”
If the play of Mrazek inspired the Canes in the first two periods, the play of Saros inspired the Predators in the third.
Saros kept Nashville in the game and the team came through for him early in the third period as Anthony Richard was hit with a stretch pass at the blueline. He skated in alone against James Reimer, who replaced Mrazek for the third period, and got him to open up the five-hole and slid the puck through.
The remainder of the third period became a sloppy mess as both teams began fanning on shots, missing passes and committing turnovers in every zone. The goaltenders were the only thing keeping either team in the game throughout the third.
The trend continued into overtime where the perpetual purgatory was finally ended as Nashville’s Ryan Johansen found himself in a similar position where Jordan Staal scored from earlier and shot the puck up over Reimer where it rang around the cage.
Now having lost three straight preseason games, the Hurricanes are heading into the sixth and final one where both teams will more than likely be playing what will be opening day rosters. It will be the final test for Carolina before the games start to matter, but Brind’Amour wasn’t too worried.
“That was exactly what I expected to happen was what happened,” Brind’Amour said. “I was hoping to see a little more chemistry with some guys, so that’s why you play these games. I didn’t coach it to necessarily to win the game; I’m coaching it to put guys in certain spots to see how it would work out. Some was good, some wasn’t good.”
The Hurricanes will play the final game of the preseason Sunday, Sept. 29 at 1:30 p.m. against the Washington Capitals at PNC Arena.
Hurricanes center Jordan Staal fights for the puck against Nashville Predators defenseman Dante Fabbro on Friday, Sept. 27 at PNC Arena. Staal scored one goal on four shots on goal as the Hurricanes lost 2-1 in overtime.
