Goaltender Frederik Andersen accumulated 32 saves as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 on Saturday, Dec. 18.
What was slated to be a marquee matchup between two of the league’s best goaltenders ended up a one-sided massacre as the Canes (21-7-1) executed an all-out assault on the Kings’ (13-11-5) net. Quick did not quite live up to his name, allowing center Jesperi Kotkaniemi to give Carolina an early 1-0 lead. The Hurricanes only made things worse for Quick from there.
“I feel like we were ready to compete today,” said center Jack Drury. “That was the message coming into the day and I think everyone bought in. That’s why this team wins games when everyone’s working hard and given their best effort.”
The Canes made good use of the power play by knocking in two goals on five chances. Right wing Jesper Fast redirected a shot from point by defenseman Jaccob Slavin to make it 2-0 just 1:36 into the game, but the highlight of the night came in the second period when a slick display of passing by Carolina culminated in a power play goal by left wing Teuvo Teräväinen to make it 4-0.
Both special teams played a big part in the Canes’ win, as Carolina killed all three of the Kings’ own power plays. With the Hurricanes firing on all cylinders for 60 minutes, Los Angeles had a lot of trouble getting anything going even with a man advantage.
“That’s always a big part of the game,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “If you don’t watch a game and you just want to look at a score and see what happened, you look at special teams. You can see whoever was the plus in that generally is the team that wins.”
The game featured a number of milestones for the Hurricanes as well. Defenseman Brady Skjei secured his 100th career assist on the opening goal while left wing Josh Leivo scored his first point as a Cane by assisting defenseman Brett Pesce’s second-period goal that made it 3-0. Drury also added his name to the scoresheet for his second goal in his first two games, and left wing C.J. Smith made his own Canes debut.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good times and holiday cheer for Carolina. Center Martin Nečas suffered a hard hit on the boards in the second period and did not return after slowly managing to leave the ice and eventually make his way down the tunnel. Brind’Amour did not have an update on his status after the game.
With their next two games postponed due to several COVID-19 cases among the Nashville Predators and the Boston Bruins, the Hurricanes will travel north of the border for their next game, a Dec. 23 matchup against the Ottawa Senators. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
