Regular Season, Game 14: Hurricanes at Vegas Golden Knights

For the first time in 647 days, the Hurricanes are heading to Vegas to play the league's second-youngest franchise. The last meeting between these two teams, on February 8, 2020, was wild. The Canes trailed 3-1 heading into the third period and then 4-2 with just under 18 minutes left before scoring three unanswered goals to take a 5-4 lead. They were unable to hold the lead, but would eventually win in a shootout during the Justin Williams Comeback Tour with Williams scoring in the shootout to give the Canes a 6-5 win. Of the 19 players that dressed for that game, only eight are currently under contract with the team. This includes Jake Gardiner, who tallied three assists in that third period during the 2020 meeting and is currently on LTIR. 

Brett Pesce is the only player that will be out of the lineup tonight, with both Martin Necas and Nino Niederreiter set to return from injury up front and Antti Raanta set to get the start in the net. This leaves an interesting decision as to who will be scratched since the team now has 13 healthy forwards. The Canes are playing their first of six straight on the road after splitting a back-to-back last Friday and Saturday, losing to Philadelphia and beating St. Louis. Vegas is in the fourth game of a six-game homestand of which they've been perfect on, winning the first three games, including a 7-4 win over Vancouver on Saturday. It has been announced that Jonathan Marchessault has been placed in COVID protocol and will be out tonight and William Carrier was placed in protocol yesterday. Vegas is dealing with its share of injuries. Max Pacioretty, Alec Martinez, William Karlsson, and newly-acquired Jack Eichel are all out of the lineup, though Mark Stone is likely to be in tonight. The Golden Knights have played well against the Canes in six all-time meetings, going 3-1-2. Hopefully, when these two red hot teams meet, the Canes can change their fortunes and go all in to beat Vegas to kick off the west coast swing. It's time for #CanesAfterDark.

1st Period

Scoring

(CAR) 11:07- Tony DeAngelo (3) (assisted by Martin Necas (4) & Vincent Trocheck (9))

(CAR) 19:04- Sebastian Aho (7) PP (assisted by Teuvo Teravainen (8) & Andrei Svechnikov (11))

Thoughts

There isn't much to dislike about how the Canes played the first period. Both teams traded good chances in the first ten minutes, but it was Tony DeAngelo getting the Canes on the board first after a beautiful pass from Martin Necas in his first game back. From that point, it was all Carolina. DeAngelo drew the first penalty of the game and then Sebastian Aho cashed in with Robin Lehner way out of position to give the Canes a 2-0 lead to take into the intermission. Necas had the point, but I also thought Nino Niederreiter played well too. He set up the first good chance of the game from behind the net to Jordan Staal. Antti Raanta wasn't challenged a lot in the period, but he was perfect in his first start in a while. Seth Jarvis had two very similar chances that Lehner stopped, but he's been buzzing trying to get to the front of the net. 40 more minutes like this and the Canes will be golden. 

2nd Period

Scoring

(VGK) 2:53- Brett Howden (2) (assisted by Ben Hutton (1) & Dylan Coughlin (3))

(VGK) 4:12- Shea Theodore (3) (assisted by Mark Stone (5) & Chandler Stephenson (11))

Thoughts

The second period was the polar opposite of the first period. Vegas scored twice quickly to tie the game in the first 4:30 of the period and we played the rest of the period tied. Brendan Smith gets outmuscled for the first goal and then the defense breaks down as Raanta stops Shea Theodore's first two shots, but can't stop the last one. The most eventful part of the entire period was the Vegas power play. Raanta made a couple huge stops and Sebastian Aho had a chance on Lehner. The fourth line was the best line of the period. They had two long stretches in the offensive zone, they just couldn't get the puck in the net. They brought the energy I'd like to see all four lines play with in the third period. They need to forget about their last two third periods and get the job done to kick off this road trip. 

3rd Period

Scoring

(CAR) 1:11- Seth Jarvis (2) (assisted by Ethan Bear (5) & Sebastian Aho (9))

(CAR) 13:41- Vincent Trocheck (4) (assisted by Teuvo Teravainen (9) & Martin Necas (5))

Thoughts

This was a great answer after a rough second period and tough third periods in their last two games. Seth Jarvis scored the eventual game-winner early in the period and this one is finally going to count for his second-career goal. Each team then traded some chances, before Vincent Trocheck finally put the nail in the coffin with about six minutes left on another rebound created by Teuvo Teravainen. Antti Raanta was huge in the third period, making a bunch of huge stops on Mark Stone and some of the other Vegas stars. In the end, he shut the door and helped the Canes start their trip off right. 

Canes' Three Stars of the Game

Third Star- Seth Jarvis (Game-winning Goal)

Teuvo Teravainen and Vincent Trocheck both deserve mentions here, but I decided on Jarvis being the third star for more than just his game-winner. I thought even back in the first period he was going. He had two good chances on Lehner early from in close and showed real guts trying to get to the front of the net. For him to finally get the eventual game-winner and for it to count is just an added bonus.

Second Star- Sebastian Aho (PP Goal, Assist)

I thought Aho was buzzing all night and the scoresheet shows it. His conversion on the power play in the first period turned out to be extremely important to give the Canes a two-goal lead seeing as they eventually gave that up. Add a secondary assist on the game-winner from Jarvis on a play I felt he helped create and it was just another in a string of good games for Aho.

First Star- Martin Necas (2 Assists)

Two assists don't make for the most flashy stat line, but for Necas to jump back into the lineup after missing the last two games because he was sick proves just how good he is. I thought his pass to set up DeAngelo for the opening goal was beautiful and then he helped start the Trocheck goal to cap things off. He was sorely missed among the forward group and his line was dynamite tonight. 

Final Thoughts

I really hate 10 pm puck drops on the east coast, so it's a good thing they won this game. They had a bad half of a period tonight, allowing the two goals to tie the game in the second period, but I felt they were otherwise the better team. That should be the case when a team like Vegas is missing a bunch of its stars due to injury. Antti Raanta played great and was key in the third period, shutting down Vegas. The Canes peppered Lehner with 42 shots and they were able to take advantage of rebounds on three of the four goals. They stayed out of the box, which was an underrated aspect of tonight's game as well. A bunch of guys contributed with multi-point games. The fourth line felt like they helped spark the team at the end of the second period and it carried over for the rest of the group in the third period to help the Canes get the Canes the win. Check to box on Vegas and it's time to look ahead to Anaheim on Thursday night. Another late start for us on the east coast, but this is one of the games I was most looking forward to during this road trip. Anaheim is on fire, led by Troy Terry. The Ducks won tonight against Washington to keep their hot start going. This is going to be a tough one, but I'm excited to see Frederik Andersen take on his former team in a Canes sweater. Tonight was a great showing from the Canes. One down, five more before they head home and so far they've earned two big points.