The Carolina Hurricanes earn two very important points in a divisional win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
No Goals
2nd Period
CAR Goal (3:52) Eric Staal (9), assisted by Kris Versteeg (20), Elias Lindholm (13)
Elias Lindholm wins a board battle behind the net against three penguins, gets it to Versteeg on the side of the goal who immediately feeds it to a wide-open Eric Staal who scores.
CAR Goal (9:44) Kris Versteeg (7), assisted by Elias Lindholm (14), Eric Staal (19)
Kris Versteeg took a shot which deflected off of Sidney Crosby’s stick, hit the back wall, then flew into the air and bounced off of Marc-Andre Fleury’s back and into the net.
PIT Goal (10:29) Kris Letang (5), assisted by Olli Maatta (7) Sidney Crosby (20)
Sidney Crosby won a face-off in the Hurricanes’ zone to Olli Maatta, who fed it to Kris Letang at the point. Letang cleanly beat Cam Ward with a hard slap-shot to his high-glove side.
3rd Period
PIT Goal (6:02) Chris Kunitz (6), assisted by Sidney Crosby (21), Patrick Hornqvist (9)
Sidney Crosby took the puck beind the net, then fed it to a driving Chris Kunitz who one-timed it past Ward.
Overtime
CAR PPG (3:02) Jeff Skinner (16), assisted by Elias Lindholm (15), Justin Faulk (18)
Victor Rask passed to Justin Faulk at the point, who then gave it to Lindholm down low. Elias then fed it to a wide-open Jeff Skinner who ends the game.
Three Stars
1st Star – Jeff Skinner, LW (CAR) – 1 goal, +0, 2 shots, 13:33 TOI
2nd Star – Eric Staal, C (CAR) – 1 goal, 1 assist, +1, 5 shots, 19:33 TOI
3rd Star – Kris Versteeg, RW (CAR) – 1 goal, 1 assist, +0, 2 shots, 16:47 TOI
Recap
The Carolina Hurricanes were able to defeat the talented Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime at the PNC Arena. You could tell that these two teams knew this was a very important game regarding the playoff race, and this led to a very competitive, hard-fought game.
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The first period was not one of many shots with only five per team. However, there were definitely a lot of opportunities to score goals. Sidney Crosby had a very good chance only a few minutes into the game. He got a good shot off on Cam Ward right in front of the net and then sent his own rebound through the crease and into the boards. In the process, he drew a hooking penalty on Elias Lindholm, giving the Penguins their first power play of the game.
Carolina Hurricanes
With only nine seconds to go on the Penguins’ first power play, Brad Malone got a delay-of-game penalty for clearing the puck into the stands. The Canes were able to kill off the nine seconds of the 5-on-3 and the subsequent Malone penalty. These were two key early penalty kills to keep the game scoreless in the first.
It is also worth mentioning that Cam Ward was nearly decapitated by a shot from Phil Kessel in the first period. Kessel’s shot took Ward’s helmet off, but thankfully Ward got up laughing and smiling, indicating he was alright.
There were a lot of chances early in the second. Both Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury made some key stops, but it was Eric Staal who got the first goal of the game off a great feed from Kris Versteeg.
Later in the second period, Kris Versteeg gets one of the craziest goals you’ll see as his wrist shot deflects off Crosby’s stick into the boards behind the net, then bounces off the back wall and over the net, off of Fleury’s back and in. The Hurricanes were up 2-0 at the half-way mark of the game.
Soon after Versteeg’s goal, Pittsburgh netted their first goal of the game to make it 2-1. Kris Letang fired a slap shot from the point which cleanly beat Cam Ward high-glove side. Ward may have been screened a bit by Versteeg on the play.
Chris Kunitz tied it up for the Penguins 2-2 at 6:02 of the third period, which remained scoreless and overtime ensued. The shots were in Pittsburgh’s favor, 25-18, at the end of the third.
Bill Peters stuck with his usual strategy of having one forward and two defensemen in OT, which actually worked out very well in this game. It was very apparent that the Penguins were having trouble because of it and as a result were unable to get a single shot on goal in the overtime period. It was the Hurricanes who scored first and won the game on a power play goal from Jeff Skinner.
Cam Ward continued his recent stellar-play as he stopped 23 of 25 shots (.920 SV%) and earned another win for his team. He made a lot of key saves throughout the game, especially on the likes of Sidney Crosby who had a lot of good chances to score.
The first line was really rolling tonight. Especially Elias Lindholm, who assisted on every Hurricanes goal. He has really stepped up his game lately, which is good to see after his earlier struggles.
Overall, the Canes had a very high compete-level tonight and got rewarded for it. Every player did their part to secure the win over a good Penguins team.
This was a very important team win for the Hurricanes against a divisional opponent. They would have liked to finish off the Penguins in regulation, but the two points in the standings are still extremely crucial to the Canes’ playoff hunt. The Hurricanes have now won three straight games and are now 6-2-2 in their last ten. The are now only two points out of a wild-card spot.
Next: Hurricanes' Best Line Combinations when Healthy
The Carolina Hurricanes will try to continue this winning streak on Thursday against the St. Louis Blues.