Seth Jarvis records an assist and the Canes remain unbeaten with a win over the Coyotes
For a long time Sunday, there were as many groans as cheers at PNC Arena as the Carolina Hurricanes hosted the Arizona Coyotes.
The undefeated Hurricanes were struggling to crack the winless Coyotes. The offensive chances were there, but not the goals. Nothing was going in the net.
That changed.
Brett Pesce’s power-play goal with 2:27 left in regulation was the winner as the Canes won 2-1 to push their record to 8-0. Pesce‘s big shot from the point made a winner of goalie Frederik Andersen, who allowed an early goal but nothing else in earning his seventh win of the season with 22 saves.
Martin Necas had Canes fans roaring late in the second period, scoring on an outside bomb of a shot that grazed the Coyotes’ Christian Fischer. It was Necas’ first goal of the season and tied the score 1-1 with 3:03 left in the period as the Canes finally solved rookie goalie Karel Vejmelka, who once played with Necas in the Czech Republic.
Pesce’s goal, his first, came after Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun cross-checked Andrei Svechnikov into the boards behind the Arizona net with 2:44 left in regulation. Necas and rookie Seth Jarvis assisted on the winning goal, Jarvis picking up his first NHL point in what had to be a memorable NHL debut.
“The biggest thing for us was sticking with our game plan and not getting frustrated,” Pesce said to the media. “Just doing it right over and over and continuing to wear them down minute by minute.
“I thought it was a gutsy win for us. Our team right now, we’re oozing confidence.”
Jarvis, the Canes’ first-round draft pick in 2020, likely will play more games with forward Nino Niederreiter sidelined with a lower-body injury. Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Niederreiter, injured Friday against Chicago, would be out a few weeks.
“It was a tough game,” Brind’Amour said. “They played really hard. We said going into the game we were going to have to grind. They played hard, which was clearly evident from the start.
“We stuck with it. I was proud of our group. It easily could have been a very frustrating game, with so many close (shots) and not connecting. But they just kept playing and got the two points.”
Brind’Amour said he had wanted Jarvis to “get his feet wet.” The Winnipeg native appeared to handle the moment well, getting 10 minutes of ice time and nearly scoring in the second period as Vejmelka scrambled about the crease.
“He doesn’t looked like a rookie to me,” Brind’Amour said. “First game, no nerves at all. Great game for him, especially for his first one.”
.jpg "AP21304720048168 (1).jpg")
Andersen, who won the Canes’ first six games of the season, was back in the net Sunday for his 400th career game in the Halloween matinee. He allowed a goal to Fischer, who skated out of the corner with the puck and scored at 5:44 of the first, but that was that. His best save might have been in the third, when Antoine Roussel had a shorthanded breakaway.
The Canes were first in the NHL in goals scored per game and allowing the fewet. The Coyotes (0-8-1) were last in both categories, and last in penalty killing.
Would it be a repeat of the Canes’ 6-3 beating of the winless Blackhawks? No, it would not. The Canes were playing their third game in four days and the Coyotes ready to compete.
For the first 37 minutes, the Canes couldn’t score at even strength. They couldn’t score on the power play.
“Come on, Canes, figure it out!” one fan screamed, frustrated.
Necas did. After Vincent Trocheck won a faceoff in the offensive zone, Tony DeAngelo passed to Necas, who unloaded. That came, Necas said, after he kidded Vejmelka during a break and told him, “You’ve got to let me score one.”
Vejmelka did his part to keep it 1-0. A big goalie at 6-3 and 224 pounds, he moved quickly to rob Svechnikov on a power-play shot at the post and denied Jordan Staal in tight. In the second, Teuvo Teravainen chipped the puck into the offensive zone and got off a shot that Vejmelka got a pad on., the puck skidding inches outside the post.
Necas and then Pesce got the puck past Vejmelka, but Sebastian Aho and Svechnikov both had their seven-game point streaks end.
Jarvis, with his family at PNC Arena to see his debut, made the obligatory solo skate before the team’s pregame warmup. His first shift in the NHL came on a line with Derek Stepan and Steven Lorentz.
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Seth Jarvis records an assist and the Canes remain unbeaten with a win over the Coyotes."
