Hurricanes have exceptional game in beating Islanders to end homestand

Chip Alexander, The News & Observer on Dec 17, 2024

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — One rule of thumb for the Carolina Hurricanes has been there are no easy games with the New York Islanders.

Regular season, playoffs, it’s going to be hard work and it’s going to be a grind.

“We’ve played ‘em enough over the years that we know what kind of game it’s going to be, usually,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Tuesday morning. “A tight game. A one-goal game, one way or another. We’ve got to be ready for that.”

But Tuesday night’s game proved to be an exception. The Canes took charge in the first period, added to the lead in the second and came away with a 4-0 victory at the Lenovo Center behind a 32-save shutout by goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.

While Isles goalie Ilya Sorokin was fighting the puck, Kochetkov was rock-solid, moving well, staying focused, making stops any way he needed to make them. It was his first shutout of the season and ninth of his career.

Late in the first period, a shot by the Isles’ Ryan Pulock was tipped and redirected in the slot. Kochetkov, always a bit unpredictable, launched his stick in the air toward the puck as if trying to knock down a drone buzzing the net.

Whatever works, Kochetkov is game to give it a try. He also can make the more conventional saves, and did, bringing out the “K-ooooch” cheers from the home crowd.

On a festive night for the sellout crowd, it was the kind of game the Canes wanted to finish out a homestand.

Forward Andrei Svechnikov, always a crowd favorite, punched the puck past Sorokin for a power-play score – his 12th goal of the season. The Isles are ranked last in the NHL on the penalty kill and allowed a power-play goal for the sixth straight game.

The Canes again got a string of heavy shifts from Jordan Staal’s line. After Staal and Jordan Martinook each had two-point games Saturday against Columbus, Martinook scored again for a 2-0 lead as Staal got the puck to the net.

Leading 2-0 after the first, the Canes had Tyson Jost and then Sebastian Aho find the net to push the lead to 4-0 – Aho with an even-strength score, his third 5-on-5 goal of the season.

Jost batted in a rebound of a Shayne Gostisbehere shot, and Aho’s came on a well-executed rush into the Isles zone with Eric Robinson. Gostisbehere had two assists for his seventh multi-point game of the season.

That did it for Sorokin, who left after the second period as Marcus Hogberg took over in net.

The Islanders outshot the Canes 24-23 in the first two periods and had their chances. With Matt Barzal off the injury list and back in the lineup, the Isles pushed the pace at times and built up some possession time in the offensive zone.

The Canes tightened up the gaps as the game moved on and were cleaner getting pucks out of their zone.

The Hurricanes had their play drop off significantly in the second period of a 4-3 loss to New York on Long Island on Dec. 7. But not this night at the Lenovo Center.

Kochetkov was back in net after watching Dustin Tokarski start his first game for the Canes and make 27 saves Saturday in the 4-1 win over the Blue Jackets.

Kochetkov had started five consecutive games before Brind’Amour gave him a game off. He looked both rested and determined – he was the loser to the Isles in the game on the Island, allowing four goals on 25 shots.

The Hurricanes will play the next four games and six of the next seven on the road, beginning Friday in Washington against the Capitals, who led the Metro Division before Tuesday’s games.

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