The Carolina Hurricanes traveled up to the Great White North to Canada’s capital in Ottawa to take on the Senators. The Senators already beat the Hurricanes earlier this year 3-2 on December 2nd, in Raleigh. Carolina was looking to even the score on the season series matchup and the game, to say the least, was a wild one.
All About the Net Front Presence
Just like the Vegas game, there were no goals scored between the two teams in the first period even though the Hurricanes were up 15-7 in shots on Ottawa. Although, the second period would find a couple of tallies between the two teams. Carolina’s Derek Stepan would grab the first goal of the game at the 2:31 mark of the second period. While sliding into the front of the crease area, Stepan would deflect a Brady Skjei shot. Skjei would steal the puck at the top of the zone and let it rip towards the net. Stepan was just in the right place, at the right time to bury the puck. That goal would be Stepan’s sixth of the season. Also, that helper would be Skeji’s 10th assist of the season along with Jesperi Kotkaniemi‘s 11th.
Go the front of the net and good things happen!
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 28, 2022
Thomas Chabot gets caught watching what Skjei is going to do with the puck out high, the veteran forward sneaks behind him and gets the attempt to change directions past Murray. pic.twitter.com/3tHsA83pEA
The period would end 1-1 though as Ottawa’s Nick Paul would tie it at the 4:31 mark. That would come exactly two minutes after Stepan’s goal. The third period would get dicey for Carolina as they saw themselves down 2-1 at the 5:50 mark after a goal from Alex Formenton. The theme of the game seemed to be to stay in front of the goalies and pick up loose change. Net front presence played a key role in mainly all the goals from the game.
Nino Niederreiter Comes Up Clutch
As the game was winding down it seemed like Carolina had no response to the 2-1 lead that Ottawa had claimed in the period. Although, the Hurricanes would find the equalizer in way of Nino Niederreiter. At the 16:38 of the period, Niederreiter would crash the net as the Hurricanes were setting up in Ottawa’s zone. Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin would snap the puck to the net trying to get a rebound, or even better a goal. Ottawa’s netminder Matt Murray did make the initial save, but the puck would squeak through his pads behind him in the crease.
Niederreiter, just like Stepan, was in the right place, at the right time. Since he crashed the net early on in the sequence, he was able to get his stick behind Murray to tie the game up for the Hurricanes. That equalizer would send the game into overtime, securing both teams of a point. Furthermore, this would be Caorlina’s second overtime of the week.
Watch #21 cut into your screen, right in Murray’s kitchen as the play develops.
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 28, 2022
The netminder makes the initial stop and had the Swiss forward not been there, the Ottawa defender easily could’ve tucked that back under his goalie for a whistle. Instead, we’re evened up. pic.twitter.com/MU7bn5TO5X
Frederik Andersen Shuts the Door for Carolina
What really kept the Hurricanes in this game was their netminder Frederik Andersen. Andersen would stop 37-of-39 shots for the game, a good majorty of them game saving shots. There were a couple breakaways that he stopped including one from Senators captain, Brady Tkachuk.
Andersen with a breakaway stop on Tkachuk to keep his team alive. Huge.
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 28, 2022
He’s been just incredible all night. pic.twitter.com/JoCrW2BJch
That save was massive for Carolina as that was in overtime and Andersen just snuck a toe out to stop the shot. Also, another insane stop was when Thomas Chabot of Ottawa does a insane deke to get free of Carolina defenders and did a behind the back pass to a teammate. Fortunately for the Hurricanes, Andersen was all over the play and made a huge stop to keep Carolina in the game.
Silky little move here from Chabot but Andersen is up to the task.
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 28, 2022
He’s made a few strong stops here in the first half of the second period. pic.twitter.com/SVh37cbYn9
When the game went into a shootout, which was Carolina’s first of the season, Andersen stepped up even more. He would face three Ottawa Senators skaters and would end up stopping all three of them. Andersen stopped the shootout attempts of Tyler Ennis, Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk. For Carolina, they would only need to send out two skaters since Ottawa went first. They would send out Vincent Trocheck and Andrei Svechnikov.
Svechnikov Secures Both Points for Carolina
While Frederik Andersen was doing his thing on one end of the ice, one Mistaaaaaaaa Svechnikov as Hurricanes fans know him as in thanks to Jordan Martinook, did his thing. What is Svechnikov’s thing? Just putting pucks in the net via a rocket. Svechnikov on his round of the shootout would skate towards Murray, skate right to the right faceoff circle. He would do a little stutter stop with some added flair of a couple backhand to forehand dekes. To cap it off, he would go backhand to forehand one more time and snap a quick wrister past Murray which would end up being the game winner. As some Hurricanes fans would say, That’s So Svech. Just a masterclass of a shootout performance from Andrei.
The Svechnikov shootout winner: pic.twitter.com/qufM22Ojpr
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 28, 2022
What is Upcoming for Carolina?
The Hurricanes have the day off on Friday before the weekend back-to-back series heading into the NHL All-Star break against the New Jersey Devils and the San Jose Sharks. The game against the Devils will be at 7:00pm eastern on Saturday and the Sharks game will be at 5:00pm eastern. After that the team will have the week off until February 7th for their game against the Tornoto Maple Leafs in Toronto.
Currently, the Hurricanes sit in first place in the Metropolitan division with 60 points, tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers. Although, Carolina has three games in hand on the Penguins and four in hand on the Rangers. Can Carolina sweep the weekend back-to-back before going into the All-Star break? Only time will tell once the weekend starts.
