3 Takeaways from the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 Shut Out Win Over Arizona

Solid Start

After giving up the game’s first two goals early in the first period of each of the past three games, good for a combined 9-2 deficit in the first ten minutes of those contest, the Hurricanes wanted to get off to a better start. You never want to trail in a game and when you’re playing from behind that early repeatedly it starts to become more mentally taxing than anything.

Finally breaking the trend, the Hurricanes came out with a jump in their step, testing Raanta early. Outshooting the Yotes 13-11 in the first, the Canes looked the better team from the drop of the puck and continued their great play throughout the period.

While they didn’t score on their power play, they did manage to generate a few semi-decent chances. That positive momentum continued into the penalty kill, after Niederreiter took an unnecessary offensive zone penalty, when Sebastian Aho almost capitalized on a short handed breakaway after a solid self pass.

Soon after Nino’s penalty expired, Andrei Svechnikov found Warren Foegele infront of the net with a beautiful pass. Foegele wasted no time putting home, giving the Canes an early 1-0 lead.

While they went into the intermission up by a goal, their lead could have been more. A few minutes in to the game Brett Pesce pinched at the right time and beat Raanta just not the post. Later on in the period, Erik Haula had an excellent defensive play that almost directly led to an absolute snipe of a goal, but unfortunately he too was bested by the cross bar.

10’s All Around

Scoring the first goal of the game gave Warren a total of ten on the year. Later on in the game two more Hurricanes’ forwards would go on to pot their 10th of the season as well.

With a little less than two minutes to go in the second, Lucas Wallmark’s high hockey IQ was on full display when he perfectly tipped a Hamilton point shot for his tenth of year, giving the Canes a two goal lead. This goal was a result of a set face-off play in which everyone on the fourth line played a part.

Shortly after Martin Necas‘ speed was on full display when he scored his 10th of the year with less than ten seconds to go in the period. With each and every game we’re seeing Necas grow into a star player and that has to be really encouraging for both the stretch run and the future.

The Hurricanes now have seven players with ten or more goals and a few more not far behind. With Justin Williams making his season debut soon, it goes without saying that this may be the deepest forward group we’ve seen in Raleigh in a very long time, and quite possible ever.

Petr Petr

It’s finally happened. The Carolina Hurricanes have gotten a timely, solid performance in net for the first time in the past couple of games. As touched upon in the three keys to the game, the Hurricanes’ goalies have only gotten a save percentage above .900 once on the home stand before Petr Mrazek‘s performance against the Yotes.

Earning first star honors, Petr made a big save a handful of time throughout the game. Both before Carolina was up 1-0, and eventually 2-0, the Coyotes had a few chances that could have caused a bit of Déjà vu for the Canes.

With their solid play throughout the first period, if Arizona would have managed to score yet another leaky goal the outcome of the game could have been totally different. Hurricanes fan are very accustomed to seeing a solid period of hockey overshadowed by a momentum killing soft goal over and over again. But not tonight.

Petr played lights out and really didn’t give the Coyotes any second chances. In what has been an extremely rare occurrence, the Hurricanes managed to out goaltend an opposing team. Given how some fans are wanting Waddell to address the situation before the deadline, this shut out couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Carolina Hurricanes are back in action tomorrow night when they host the LA Kings on Whalers night.