Canes end four-game losing streak, rip Senators 8-2
Apparently there’s something about a loss to the Ottawa Senators that shakes up and awakens the Carolina Hurricanes.
Two days after a listless defeat to the Sens in Ottawa, the Canes returned home Monday to PNC Arena and put together an 8-2 victory that checked all the boxes, that ended a four-game losing streak.
“That was a pretty solid game all the way, start to finish,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Nice to see the puck go in. The last couple of weeks here it has been tough sledding finding the back of the net.
“It was the type of game as a coach you like to see. A little bit less stressful, that’s for sure.”
Sebastian Aho scored shorthanded -- the first of two goals by the determined center -- and Martin Necas had a power-play score. Check off special-teams play.
Defenseman Joel Edmundson had a goal and two assists, his first points with the Canes, and Haydn Fleury and Dougie Hamilton each scored while Brett Pesce had two assists. Check off offensive help from the defense.
A quick start? The Canes (10-7-1) had that, too, as forward Warren Foegele got off a shot from the right circle that nicked the skate of Sens forward Chris Tierney and trickled through goalie Anders Nilsson. After 44 seconds, it was 1-0, Canes.
The Canes’ Ryan Dzingel also scored against his former team as Carolina posted a season-high for goals and had 14 players pick up points., making for a happy locker room after the game.
Canes goalie Petr Mrazek was solid enoughwith 26 saves in picking up his eighth win of the season. Mrazek misplayed the puck behind the net late in the second period, allowing Colin White to score on a wraparound. The Sens’ Brady Tkachuk scored in the third, but after the Canes had taken a 6-1 lead.
“The last game in Ottawa was something we can’t do again,” Aho said. “It was a good bounce-back for us and we did it right all 60 minutes.”
This was a night the Canes played well, earned some good bounces and made the most of them. They also showed some feistiness, Brock McGinn dropping the gloves and going after the Sens’ Bobby Ryan after Ryan blasted the Canes’ Brian Gibbons in a corner with a dangerous hit in the first.
McGinn was injured in the game in Ottawa and did not go through the morning skate Monday but was in the lineup. “He’ll play banged up,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s old-school.”
The Canes played so poorly in a home-ice beating by the Sens last season that Brind’Amour said, “I almost dressed and got out there.” The Canes got the message, rebounded and soon became one of the hottest teams in the NHL.
On Saturday, Brind’Amour again was disgusted after another 4-1 loss to the Sens. Ottawa had a big first period, the Canes didn’t push back or play with much energy and Brind’Amour was left to call the loss unacceptable, saying it was “soul-searching time” for the Canes.
Brind’Amour said after Monday’s skate, which was intense, that he needed his best players to play their best. Aho responded with perhaps his best game of the season, scoring on a breakaway for the shorthanded goal and then knocking a hard carom off the end boards glass into the net early in the third for a 6-1 lead.
Aho, who had a minus-4 rating in Saturday’s game, was plus-4 on Monday, saying, “I felt that (loss) was on me and I really wanted to play a good game tonight.”
Brind’Amour changed up his lines after the game in Ottawa, moving winger Teuvo Teravainen on Aho’s line with Andrei Svechnikov, reuniting the two Finns. Svechnikov had a pair of assists and Teravainen, so solid all over the ice, set up Hamilton for a shot in the slot to earn a primary assist.
Necas and Fleury both scored after opportune bounces. On Necas’ power-play score, a Jake Gardiner shot from the top was blocked by the Sens’ Vladislav Namestnikov, the puck bounding to Necas for a shot at an open net.
Fleury. scoring his second of the season, had his shot go off the stick of defenseman Erik Brannstrom and sail past Nilsson for a 4-0 lead. Fleury had been a healthy scratch the past two games and six of the past seven, but was in the lineup Monday replacing Trevor van Riemsdyk in the third defensive pairing.
The Sens (6-10-1) made a goaltending change after the Fleury goal, with Craig Anderson replacing Nilsson, but the damage had been done and Canes continued to score.
“They’re a real good hockey team at home and they played their system to a T,” Sens coach D.J. Smith said.
This story was originally published November 11, 2019 at 9:45 PM.
