Canes roll into the All-Star break on a win streak after 2-1 victory over the Sharks
It was just the way the Carolina Hurricanes wanted to head into the NHL All-Star break.
The Canes outlasted the San Jose Sharks 2-1 Sunday at PNC Arena for a fourth straight victory, getting the winning goal from Andrei Svechnikov with 3:46 left in regulation. Outfighting defenseman Brent Burns in front of the net, Svechnikov swept in a loose puck for his 16th goal of the season and his second game-winner in as many days.
Goalie Frederik Andersen took it from there and will head to Las Vegas for the 2022 All-Star Game with 24 wins for the Canes, who sit in first place in the Metropolitan Division with a 31-9-2 record and 64 points.
Andersen will join Canes center Sebastian Aho at the All-Star Game next weekend competing for the Metro Division team coached by Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour.
“I thought it was a great game overall,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought we defended well, the goalie played well. And then we created a lot of opportunities but didn’t quite cash in. We were around (the net) all night.
“It’s one of the better games we’ve played because we didn’t get frustrated. We stuck to want we wanted to do. It was a good test and I thought we answered it well.”
The Canes’ Vincent Trocheck scored 4:36 into Sunday’s game for a 1-0 lead. The two teams then spent a lot of time hunting the next goal before forward Rudolfs Balcers tied it 1-1 for the Sharks at 3:36 of the third period.
But that was all Andersen would allow, finishing with 27 saves and leaving Canes fans chanting “Fred-die, Fred-die” after being named the game’s first star.
“This is the kind of atmosphere you have in the playoffs (and) the kind of games where they’re tight, 1-0, 2-1 games,” Trocheck said. “Those are the kind of games we want to win. We want to win 1-0, 2-1 and keep the puck out of the net as much as we can. This game was a good example of how we want to play.”
The Canes emerged with a tough 2-1 win Saturday over the New Jersey Devils at PNC Arena as goalie Antti Raanta was in net and the game’s first star. The Sharks were coming off a 5-4 overtime loss Saturday at Florida in which goalie James Reimer faced 50 shots.
Reimer, who helped the Canes reach the playoffs the past two seasons, signed with the Sharks in the offseason as the Canes decided to go with Andersen and Raanta. He was making his first return to Raleigh on Sunday, much as former Canes goalie Alex Nedeljkovic did with the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the season.
Reimer was beaten early in the game when Trocheck jumped off the bench on a change, grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone and used Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic as a partial screen when he released the shot. It was his 11th goal of the season.
That was it until the third period as open ice or uncontested shots were hard to find. There was tight checking and players trying to make plays in tight spaces, and much of the game was played five on five -- both teams were 0-2 on the power play.
Svechnikov’s goal came after Aho won a faceoff in the Sharks zone. Defenseman Brett Pesce got off a quick outside shot that was blocked in front of Reimer, and Svechnikov beat Burns to the puck.
“It was my ice and I didn’t want to give it,” Svechnikov said. “It was a rebound and a lucky bounce for me and I put it in the net.”
Andersen made some sparkling saves in the first period, faced just four shots in the second, and refused to be beaten late in the game when the Sharks pulled Reimer for a sixth attacker.
Through the first two periods Sunday in a grinding game, the crowd might have been at its loudest midway through the first. The Sharks’ Jeffrey Viel shoved Svechnikov as the two were leaving the ice on a change and they thentumbled and fell through an open door at the Sharks bench as both were penalized for roughing.
One of Reimer’s best saves came 19 seconds after Balcers scored for the Sharks early in the third, Balcers outwaiting Andersen with the puck before shooting. The Canes’ Jesper Fast had a good look to Reimer’s right but the goalie quickly made the stop.
The Canes had some strong forechecking shifts in the third as Brind’Amour stuck with the lines he tweaked in the third period Saturday against the Devils. Reimer kept his cool and made the saves until Svechnikov jumped on the rebound.
This story was originally published January 30, 2022 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Canes roll into the All-Star break on a win streak after 2-1 victory over the Sharks."
