Peter Koutroumpis (@pksport)
RALEIGH, NC – The Carolina Hurricanes extended their win streak to five games with a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers at PNC Arena on Sunday.
Goals from Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho were enough to earn the win while goaltender Frederik Andersen backstopped the effort with 29 saves.
Former Hurricanes forward Derek Ryan kept his hot hand going following a hat trick performance the day before against Florida.
However, his goal early in the second was not enough combined with goaltender Mike Smith’s 27 saves to pull Edmonton closer for the remainder.
Killing it
The Hurricanes’ league-leading penalty kill played a critical role in this one, denying Oilers star Connor McDavid and his teammates on four occasions as the NHL’s second ranked power play went 0-for-4 on the day.
Just 51 seconds in, it was McDavid who caught Andersen off guard with a speedy break off the right wing that resulted in an easy-looking on-ice slider under the pads that put Edmonton up 1-0 in front of a packed-house crowd of Caniacs.
The joy shown by the handfuls of blue jersey-wearing fans in the crowd was soon silenced by the roar of the Carolina faithful as the referee announced no goal due to offside following a video review initiated by Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Riding the wave
Teravainen’s and Aho’s goals came five minutes apart in the latter half of the first period following a significant 4-minute penalty kill as a result of defenseman Brady Skjei’s high stick that caught McDavid in the mouth and removed him from the game to get tended to.
Without their power play quarterback, the Oilers were unable to produce anything during that man-advantage sequence.
“Our captain and leader was not on the ice for that (power play), and that affects things,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said.
“McDavid took one to the jibs there – a laceration and some dental work – and came back to play the rest of the game.”
Even with a woozier-looking McDavid back in the game, Edmonton still couldn’t pull even with “one of the more talented and hardest working teams in the league”, to paraphrase Woodcroft on the Hurricanes’ performance.
Shutting it down
Coupled with 19 saves for his third shutout of the season in a 4-0 win over Columbus on Friday, Andersen recorded his fourth straight win – his league-leading 29th win this season.
He has now posted an 18-2-2 record, 2.03 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and two shutouts in his last 22 games, dating back to Dec. 7.
When asked Friday, Brind’Amour noted that his starter never gets too high or too low – “Nah, nope.”
When asked on Sunday, “anything in particular you like in Andersen’s game?,”
Brind’Amour provided another simple response: “He stops the puck.”
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