After a tough ending to an otherwise excellent homestand, the Carolina Hurricanes hit the road for a quick trip to Buffalo and their first meeting of the season with the Sabres. The Canes climbed out of a 2-0 hole in the third period to earn a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Ducks on Sunday, finishing their three-game homestand with five of six possible points.
Dustin Tokarski was in the net for the Hurricanes, facing his former team after pitching a 14-save shutout last Friday night against the Canucks. The rest of the lineup remained the same for Carolina. The Sabres turned to Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen to get them back on track after a 6-2 loss to the Kraken over the weekend.
Everyone but the Hurricanes must've known the game started at 6 pm because they were immediately chasing. Connor Clifton opted not to dump the puck, waiting for his teammates to change. He found Ryan McLeod, who was given plenty of room to skate in and fire from the deep slot to beat Tokarski 43 seconds into the contest.
The Canes had plenty of chances to draw even, earning two power plays consecutively eight seconds apart. Instead, they hindered the Canes' ability to get back into it, providing nothing offensively. Carolina slowly started finding their game as the period progressed, getting a successful kill before the end of the period to get into the break down a goal.
It's hard to dominate like the Canes did to begin the second period. Their third power play was much better despite failing to score. All it took was one turnover to spoil the momentum. Dylan Cozens created his goal by pressuring Brent Burns and Jaccob Slavin, deflecting passes from both defenders within seconds. His deflection of Slavin's pass and Burns losing sight of the puck allowed Buffalo to enter the zone on a 3-on-2. Cozens received the pass and buried it to double the lead.
In the dying seconds of the second, the Sabres added salt to the wound. McLeod won a battle in front of the net and snuck a rebound through Tokarski with 3.5 seconds left to make it 3-0 before the intermission. Knowing what we know now, this was a costly one. Instead of needing to overcome a two-goal deficit, the Canes were down by three with no signs of beating Luukkonen.
All it took was one break to help the Canes start working back into the game. Slavin threw a seemingly harmless shot toward the net. The skimmer managed to bounce under the Sabres netminder, breaking the shutout in the most inauspicious way possible. Regardless, it was a goal on the board and a step closer to drawing even.
The pressure continued throughout the third period. Eventually, it would bring the Canes within a goal. With Tokarski on the bench for the extra attacker, Martin Necas uncorked a one-timer from the near-dot past Luukkonen to make it 3-2 and put serious doubts into the fans. Fortunately for Buffalo, that's as close as it got. The official scorers played Hot Potato with the empty-net goal, settling on McLeod despite Burns destroying his stick before he could touch the puck, finishing the hat trick and the 4-2 Buffalo win.
Since joining the Hurricanes, Dustin Tokarski has been good. Facing his former team, he might've played his worst game of the season. Two of the three goals were clean looks from the deep slot that beat him. One went under his blocker and the other went under his glove. The third goal was poor rebound control on a sharp-angle shot before he failed to seal the lower portion of the net. His Buffalo counterpart outclassed him for 60 straight minutes.
Tokarski shouldn't shoulder all of the blame. The Canes' failure to capitalize on two power plays in the first period set them up for failure. They had a chance to grab the momentum back. Instead, they looked like they'd never been on the power play before. They were sloppy with the puck through the neutral zone, allowing the Sabres to steal it and kill time. Even the penalty kill broke down and forced Tokarski to make some tough stops on their only kill of the night.
The Canes had their chances to score, putting 37 shots on the net. Luukkonen let in one bad goal to start the near-comeback but was otherwise outstanding. The action was in his end for almost the entire third period, as the Sabres finished with zero shots in the final 20 minutes. They didn't even put the empty-netter into the net since it was awarded on a penalty. This trend needs to end for the Hurricanes. They can't keep digging themselves into holes because they'll eventually dig too deep.
Up Next: The only other game for the Carolina Hurricanes this week is Friday night when they'll return to Raleigh to face the scorching Vegas Golden Knights. They won't play this weekend but will be back in action for a back-to-back on the road next week in Chicago and Dallas on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.