The Carolina Hurricanes came out on the wrong side of a fast paced game against the Pittsburgh Penguins to kick off the 2006 Stanley Cup reunion.
The Carolina Hurricanes dropped their second consecutive game in shootout, and this time, it was to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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Scoring Summary
1st Period
No Goals
2nd Period
PIT Goal (15:43) – Phil Kessel (16), assisted by Matt Cullen (10), Carl Hagelin (14)
Matt Cullen fed the puck to Phil Kessel in the corner, and he rolled out of the boards and beat Cam Ward short-side in between his blocker and his body. It was a goal that Ward will want back, but it gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
3rd Period
CAR Goal (14:42) – Andrej Nestrasil (8), assisted by Joakim Nordstrom (10), John-Michael Liles (8)
The Hurricanes looked like they were down and out, but Nestrasil made a great individual play to tie the game at 1. Nestrasil dragged the puck around a Pittsburgh defender along the right wall, and he walked in to snipe it high glove side on Marc-Andre Fleury.
Overtime
No Goals
Shootout
PIT Goal (5th Round) – Kris Letang
Three Stars
1st Star – Marc-Andre Fleury, G (PIT) – 29 saves, 30 shots against, .967 save percentage
2nd Star – Andrej Nestrasil, RW (CAR) – 1 goal, 4 shots, 17:14 TOI
3rd Star – Cam Ward, G (CAR) – 25 saves, 26 shots against, .962 save percentage
Recap
After a four day layoff, the Carolina Hurricanes hit the ice again for a majorly important game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. Unfortunately, the Canes couldn’t claim the extra point in the shootout and fell to the Pens by a final score of 2-1.
Just like Sunday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, which also ended in a 2-1 shootout loss for Carolina, it was a true goalie duel. This time it was between Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury.
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Ward stopped 33 of 34 shots against the Habs on Sunday, and he stopped 25 of 26 shots he faced against Pittsburgh on Friday night in Raleigh. On the other end of the ice, Fleury made 29 save on 30 Carolina shots, and he was perfect up until the final minutes of the third period.
The Hurricanes struggled to solve Fleury, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. They had a lot of high danger scoring chances, but they just couldn’t finish, and that was the difference in the game.
Jeff Skinner played a marvelous offensive game. He had a high motor, and he was constantly possessing the puck in the Penguins end of the ice. He played well with the puck in the dirty areas around of the net, along the boards, and in the corners throughout the game.
Carolina Hurricanes
With his parents in the crowd, Andrej Nestrasil played another great game on Carolina’s second line. He had 4 shots and netted a big game-tying-goal late in regulation time. He logged 17:14 of ice time.
The absence of Justin Faulk was very apparent for the Hurricanes. Their powerplay faltered without their powerplay quarterback, registering zero shots on goal in a trio of man advantage opportunities. The rest of Carolina’s defensive core had to step and play more even minutes without Faulk, which led to Jaccob Slavin logging the most minutes amongst all Canes players with 24:25.
Noah Hanifin played a stellar game for the Hurricanes. He was all over the ice, showing off his great skating ability, and he was effective on both sides of the puck. He was given credit for a game-leading 4 takeaways against the Penguins, and he nearly scored a beautiful wrap-around goal late in the third period, but he was shutdown by a diving Marc-Andre Fleury.
Canes head coach Bill Peters shuffled around his forward lines a bit in the middle of the game. He put Di Giuseppe back on the first line alongside Eric Staal and Kris Versteeg and put Elias Lindholm in Di Giuseppe’s spot with Victor Rask and Jeff Skinner.
The Skinner-Rask-Lindholm combination thrived after the switch up, and they produced a plethora of great scoring chances in the second half of the hockey game. Skinner and Rask ranked atop all players in corsi.
This game was one of great importance for the Carolina Hurricanes, who are still clawing for a playoff spot in the East. They gained a big point, but at this point of the season, they can no longer settle for just a point. They needed an extra point, but they just couldn’t pull it out on Friday.
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The Canes will turn around and play another big game against the New York Islanders on Saturday night in Raleigh. This is a must win game as they get closer and closer to the February 29 trade deadline.