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.

1. Did the Canes Shut Down the Wild’s Top Scorers?

Short answer? Technically, yes. Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, and Brad Hunt were all kept off the scoresheet. Long answer? The Minnesota Wild still managed to overcome being down all game to tie it at 3 apiece in the 2nd period.

The Minnesota Wild came right out of the gate with Brad Hunt managing to pull away for a breakaway chance that was easily stopped by James Reimer. Eric Staal and Co. had many solid shifts, but couldn’t manage to get one past Reimer.

The Minnesota Wild players who did manage to score were mostly unexpected barring one, at least on my end. Luke Kunin scored first for the Wild, followed by Zach Parise, then Carson Soucy to tie it up.

The Canes did a solid job of shutting down Eric Staal, Brad Hunt, and Jason Zucker, but not so great at shutting down the rest of the Wild’s offensive threats. Now to take a look at James Reimer’s absolutely tremendous effort today.

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).