Carolina Hurricanes: Three Takeaways from Overtime Win vs. Minnesota Wild

The Carolina Hurricanes secured a second consecutive overtime win, this time against the Minnesota Wild by a score of 4-3. Here’s how they stacked up to the keys to victory.

The Carolina Hurricanes play an entirely different game in front of James Reimer. Today’s game was no exception. While I fully believe Reimer was pivotal in today’s win, the Canes’ on the whole managed to scrape out another win on the road.

Today’s matinee game went from pretty, to ugly, and back to pretty again as the Carolina Hurricanes basically traded goals with the Minnesota Wild after going up 2-0 early on.

Earlier today, in my three keys to victory article, I mentioned that the Canes needed to shut down the Wild’s biggest offensive threats, get more consistency from their goaltending, and keep scoring on the powerplay. I’d say they did two out of the three successfully, with powerplay scoring falling to the wayside.

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Let’s take a look at each key specifically, and see how the Canes stacked up, starting with their ability to shut down the Wild’s top scorers.

2. Did the Canes Get Consistent Goaltending?

Again, short answer? Yes. James Reimer was a huge reason why the Carolina Hurricanes managed to walk away with another tally in the win column. Long answer? The Carolina Hurricanes play an entirely different game in front of him, and it really showed this afternoon.

James Reimer notched his 3rd win as a Carolina Hurricane today, and did so in tremendous fashion. Although Reimer was scored on 3 times, the first two were absolutely not his fault; the first was a goal placed by him by Luke Kunin right in front of the net.

The second goal came from Zach Parise, who managed to put a rebound past Reimer. To be fair, Reimer made a tremendous first stop on his own against Parise, but wasn’t able to get a handle on the rebound. Keep in mind Parise was entirely on his own right on Reimer’s doorstep.

The third goal was a bit iffy; former Carolina Hurricane Victor Rask made a play along the sideboards, and found Carson Soucy across the ice. Soucy was relatively unmarked, and deftly snapped the shot past Reimer for the game-tying goal, which was also Soucy’s first NHL goal.

All in all, Reimer had an incredible game today. The amount of 2-on-1 chances the Canes gave up to Minnesota that Reimer then had to contend with was staggering. Reimer stood tall on every penalty kill, and even made two incredible goal-line saves during the 3rd to keep the game tied and the Canes in it. Now, to talk about the Canes’ powerplay (or lack thereof).

3. Did the Canes Score on the Powerplay?

Nope. No short answer/long answer for this one, Caniacs. The Carolina Hurricanes looked great on the powerplay tonight, barring the last one in the 2rd that led to a shorthanded goal from Zach Parise.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ powerplay is still miles ahead of where it was last season, but in close games like this one, the Canes need to figure out a way to score with the man advantage.

Today’s matinee game wasn’t the prettiest of games. The Carolina Hurricanes managed to let an ailing team come back and force the game into overtime, despite going up by two goals two separate times this game.

The Carolina Hurricanes did, however, get some scoring at 5v5 hockey, thanks to Joel Edmundson (currently on a 4-game point streak), Brock McGinn, and Warren Foegele.

On top of that, Russian phenom Andrei Svechnikov buried the game-winner in OT, his second career OT goal. There were plenty of bright spots for the Carolina Hurricanes this afternoon, and quite a few mistakes were made, but the Canes pulled out a win nonetheless, and walk away two points richer.

James Reimer can breathe a tiny sigh of relief as he played arguably his best game all season. Hopefully this can instill some more confidence in the team in front of him, and he’ll get some more starts under his belt as he finds his groove.

Question for CC Readers: What do you think about Reimer’s performance tonight?