Carolina Hurricanes Fall to Panthers Despite Raanta’s Effort
By Glenn Brewer
The Carolina Hurricanes traveled to South Florida to take on the Florida Panthers. The Hurricanes came in with 17 points while holding the third spot in the Metropolitan division.
Carolina was coming off a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.
Despite a solid start to the season, the Hurricanes are facing a difficult group of opponents ahead, starting with the Panthers.
The three Staal brothers would be playing in the same game, while Eric would be participating in his 1,300th NHL game.
Game Review
The game started with open play from both clubs.
The Hurricanes seemed flat-footed in their own zone in the first period which led to a lot of chasing the puck and odd-man rushes for the Panthers.
Teuvo Teravainen had the best chance early on with some slick hands to draw the puck back and try short side on Panther’s goaltender, Spencer Knight. Teravainen hit the near post and the puck bounced out of play.
The youngster, Jack Drury, was making his season debut on a line with Derek Stepan and Stefan Noesen.
This line and the Jordan Staal line had the most consistent time in the offensive zone before Rod Brind’Amour started to shuffle the lines.
The story of the game was Antti Raanta.
Stopping a few breakaway chances, Raanta was seeing the puck well and keeping the Hurricanes in the game.
Unfortunately for Raanta, Dylan Coghlan had a rough shift and was outskated to a puck in the defensive zone, which led to the Panther’s first goal.
Coghlan just entered the lineup for Calvin De Haan, lost a battle in front of Raanta for a rebound from the point to Nick Cousins and Cousins put the puck in the net.
That was the only goal until the third period thanks to Raanta and the Hurricane’s penalty kill.
Ultimately the Panther’s speed was too much for the Hurricanes and the power plays came in bunches for the Panthers.
The penalty kill disrupted the entry for the Panthers and the Panthers recorded no shots on their second power play chance.
The power play chances were too much, and the Panthers were able to get a power play goal in the third period.
The closest the Hurricanes would come to a goal was a disallowed goal after Andrei Svechnikov ran a Panthers defenseman into Knight before the puck went into the net.
Another post or two was hit by the Hurricanes but ultimately the Panthers were able to keep the Hurricane’s chances far outside the circles.
Summary
The Hurricanes suffered their second straight defeat and will have a tough task tomorrow against the Edmonton Oilers.
Raanta put forth one of the best goaltending performances of the season, but it was not enough for a victory.
The penalty kill took a big step forward in getting back to form and Drury spent a lot of time in the offensive zone.
It will be interesting to see if Paul Stastny or Calvin De Haan return to the lineup tomorrow.