RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes planned to get back on the winning track when they faced off against the Calgary Flames at PNC Arena on Monday.
However, what they finished with was a continuation of their inability to score, extending their drought into two games and six periods, and losing 2-0 to the Flames.
“It was disappointing,” Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller said.
“We’ve got four days ahead of us to sit on it. Points are huge. Overall, we didn’t get the lead and when you play teams like Calgary – we said before it was going to be a game in the trenches, it’s gonna’ be hardworking – they got the lead and once they did, they were able to kind of sit back a little bit and defend.”
You would have thought that using the two days following their recent 3-0 shutout loss in Columbus to rest up on Saturday and then put in a hard practice on Sunday was a good strategy to prepare for the second and final meeting with Calgary.
Forwards Riley Nash and Jiri Tlusty, who missed five and eight games respectively, were activated from the injured reserve in addition to Eric Staal who returned from a three-game absence, putting the team’s lineup back into a state that Muller knew how to work with.
Apparently there was a disconnect from Sunday into Monday as Carolina didn’t play with the energy nor the structured play that they had exhibited during their most recent five-game win streak.
“We didn’t have that extra jump,” Muller said.
“We had three new guys in the lineup that hadn’t played in a while. We kind of felt that it would have been the opposite – some fresh legs and a couple of days off since last game – I thought we were ready to jump out there in the first. But, they (Calgary) came out hard which we said they were going to. They got the lead early and changed the style of play. We got better as the game went on, but we didn’t have that extra jump there in the first period to come out hard and get that first goal.”
As both teams skated to a scoreless first period, it was the Flames who out-chanced and outshot the Hurricanes 14-5.
Carolina goaltender Anton Khudobin, who finished the game making 27 saves in losing his second consecutive game, solidified the defensive effort on the back end early on.
“We just need to find our game again,” Khudobin said.
“We didn’t get our points today and that’s what’s most frustrating.”
As both teams continued to chase the puck from end to end during the early part of the second period, they each tried to formulate some semblance of an offensive strategy to score, and it was Calgary who emerged first to benefit from the dump-and-chase regimen that 15,276 in attendance were witness to.
On the power play as the result of a Patrick Dwyer hooking penalty, the Flames finally broke the scoreless tie as Mikael Backlund scored with 4:34 to play in the period.
As Jiri Hudler attempted to thread a pass through the slot, the puck deflected off Hurricanes forward Radek Dvorak’s skate towards Khudobin who had to react quickly in an attempt to make the stop on the play.
At the same time, Backlund got his stick on the puck and jammed it between Khudobin’s pads to put Calgary ahead 1-0.
By the end of the second period, the Hurricanes had narrowed the gap in shots on goal, outshooting Calgary 12-6, and showed a more energized pace of play.
However, it was not enough to put a puck past Karri Ramo who finished the game facing 23 total shots.
Play continued in the same vein and pace it had for the previous 40 minutes until Flames’ TJ Galiardi initiated a three-on-two near the midpoint of the third period that set up Calgary’s next goal.
As he gained the blue line, Galiardi slid a pass to Paul Byron in the slot that caused Khudobin to slide across his crease to challenge a potential shot.
With Khudobin out of position, rookie Sean Monahan was all alone to finish the play by one-timing a pass from Byron into the net and extending the Calgary lead to 2-0 with 10:24 to play.
Unable to score for the remainder of the game, the Hurricanes completed their second consecutive game in being shut out, a circumstance that they haven’t experienced since the 2011-2012 season.
“It’s frustrating to us that we haven’t scored a goal in six periods,” forward Manny Malhotra said.
“We have to make sure that we get back to that mentality of shooting first and getting bodies in to get second and third whacks at the puck.”
The second straight loss dropped the Hurricanes back down to second-last place in the Metropolitan Division and four points out of a playoff spot at the moment.
If the Hurricanes intend to earn that spot, more goals and more wins will be needed, and they won’t need to be of the pretty variety either according to Muller.
“From here to the Olympic break, and especially after that, the games are really gonna’ tighten up,” Muller said.
“And they’re gonna’ be hard battles. We’re gonna’ need more from guys to get into those areas to score ugly goals. That’s where we get them in these tight one-nothing games, two-one-type style games.”