Sloppy First Period
The first period started off well for the Hurricanes, with Warren Foegele receiving a prime scoring opportunity, only to be bested by Rittich. That, unfortunately, was the high point of the opening stanza for Carolina.
The Hurricanes took the game’s first penalty with Foegele whistled for high-sticking. This ended up being short-lived as Calgary captain Mark Giordano went off for interference 1:03 later. The home team did little on their abbreviated power play, failing to get clean entries, let alone set up for any sustained pressure.
The futility began to envelop the period as Calgary was able to dictate the game’s pace, aided by Carolina’s inaccurate passes and careless defensive play. This was best exemplified when captain Jordan Staal misread his coverage which allowed Lindholm to open the scoring at 13:04.
The trend continued throughout the remainder of the period, the unbalanced play not reflected in the shot total (12-11 in favor of the Flames). Calgary appeared to open up a 2-0 lead on a Mikael Backlund goal when Rod Brind’Amour did what he does and executed a flawless challenge. The play was ruled offside, and the first period ended with the visitors holding a 1-0 lead.
NO GOAL pic.twitter.com/wABYxaleSF
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) October 29, 2019
Considering how much time the Hurricanes spent chasing the puck, it could have been much worse.