Regular Season, Game 77: Hurricanes at Arizona Coyotes

It's time for another edition of #CanesAfterDark with the final late start of the season as the team travels to Arizona for their first and only trip to the desert. Saturday night's game against Colorado was supposed to be a fun game against the best team in the league after a defensive struggle earlier in the season. What we go was almost nothing like what we expected. The Avalanche jumped out to a 4-0 lead just 2:21 into the second period before Rod Brind'Amour used his timeout. The Canes fought back to within two thanks to the captain scoring twice, but Alex Newhook netted his own rebound to restore the three-goal lead. The lead would shrink back to two with a goal from Sebastian Aho before the close of the second period, giving me a little bit of hope for a comeback. Mikko Rantanen and Andrei Svechnikov would trade goals, making it 6-4, but then the wheels fell off. The Avalanche only scored one more time but before they did, Cale Makar laid a legal hit on Jordan Staal that sent him to the back for the rest of the game, and it made everything that had happened before feels non-existent. Shortly after Colorado scored, Frederik Andersen looked very awkward making a save and he would eventually leave the game during the next stoppage with an apparent lower-body injury. The Canes dropped the game 7-4, but it felt like they lost a lot more. That means tonight they'll be playing without their likely Vezina-contender goaltender and their captain. 

Their opponent tonight is one they haven't seen since the last day of October. This game is remembered for a couple things. I remember it as the game that Karel Vejmelka almost stole for the Coyotes. It was also the debut of Seth Jarvis after serving as a healthy scratch to that point. Christian Fischer scored early in the first period on Andersen, but Martin Necas answered in the second period to tie it before the start of the third. The game looked destined for overtime, but Brett Pesce had different ideas. With the Canes on the power play, Pesce blasted one home from the point to give the Canes a 2-1 lead, Jarvis his first career point with the secondary assist, and, eventually, the win to remain perfect to start the season. Along with Staal and Andersen out for the game, Jesperi Kotkaniemi is considered day-to-day with an injury, so both Derek Stepan and Steven Lorentz find themselves back in the lineup. Antti Raanta will start tonight and likely will get most of the starts down the stretch. Backing him up for the first time in his career is one of the team's top goalie prospects, Pyotr Kochetkov. The circumstances for his call-up aren't the best, but it's at least exciting to see him in the red and black.

The Coyotes are not having a fun time right now. They've lost six straight, allowing five or more goals in all six games, and have only won twice since mid-March (2-12-1 in their last 15 games). They've allowed six, six, seven, and nine goals in their last four games with only their most recent loss to Calgary being their only game against a current playoff team. That 9-1 loss to Calgary on Saturday actually started off pretty well for Arizona. Nick Ritchie scored the game's first, and only, goal of the first period to give the Coyotes a lead after 20 minutes. The Flames proceeded to score nine unanswered goals, including four in the first 3:11 of the second period. Gaudreau, Lindholm, and Tkachuk all finished with four-point nights and both Vejmelka and Harri Sateri saw time during the game. They also have some serious injury problems. Jakob Chychrun, Lawson Crouse, and Clayton Keller are all done for the season, while Fischer and Antoine Roussel are among their guys missing games lately. They currently hold the best odds to win the draft lottery, two points worse than Montreal. As much as I want the trend of bad goaltending for the Coyotes to continue with Vejmelka getting the start tonight, the Canes are notorious for facing struggling goalies that go on to play their best game in months. This could very well be another 2-1 game. This game is a little important for the Canes, so they better come out guns blazing tonight. 

1st Period

Scoring

(CAR) 4:01- Vincent Trocheck (20) (assisted by Brady Skjei (26) & Martin Necas (23))

Thoughts

This period felt like it was going in slow motion up until the Svechnikov penalty. Neither team really turned on the gas until after the midway point. The Canes' goal felt like it materialized out of nowhere. It didn't feel like we were building to it. It more or less just happened. Skjei streaks up the boards and feathers a beautiful pass to the front of the net that is redirected home by Trocheck just over four minutes into the contest to make it 1-0. DeAngelo rang the goalpost. Aho had a breakaway that was stopped. The Canes killed a penalty with relative ease. I don't feel the Canes truly dominated the period, but they spent most of the time in front of Vejmelka. It was a decent start to the game, largely because they have the lead. I'm not satisfied by the one-goal lead, so I'm hoping the Canes jump out with a lot of enthusiasm in the second period to add to this lead. 

2nd Period

Scoring

(CAR) 1:47- Jesper Fast (13) (unassisted)

(CAR) 4:43- Max Domi (10) (assisted Nino Niederreiter (19) & Brett Pesce (20))

(ARZ) 6:32- Nick Ritchie (12) (assisted by Nathan Smith (1) & Phil Kessel (39))

(CAR) 11:52- Nino Niederreiter (23) (assisted by Max Domi (28) & Brett Pesce (21))

(ARZ) 16:15- Loui Eriksson (3) (assisted by Kyle Capobianco (4) & Andrew Ladd (4))

(ARZ) 18:42- Alex Galchenyuk (6) (assisted by Kyle Capobianco (5) & Travis Boyd (18)

Thoughts

The end of this period is going to overshadow the pure dominance of the Canes through the first 16 minutes. This period proved to me that Niederreiter and Fast can play with just about anyone centering their line. Fast scored just under two minutes into the period, then Domi got his first as a Hurricanes just under three minutes later. Ritchie got a goal back for the Coyotes, but Niederreiter got it back to re-establish the three-goal lead. Things unraveled a little at the end of the period with Eriksson and Galchenyuk scoring goals in transition to cut the lead to one before the end of the period. The Canes seemed to let off the gas and the Coyotes made them pay. Each team will finish the period with three goals, the Canes on 24 shots and the Coyotes on 14. We're right back where we started to begin the period, the scoreboard just has a lot more goals than it did when the second began. Some of the magic we saw to start the second is going to be needed to get the multi-goal lead back. They've let Arizona back into this one and it makes me a little nervous. 

3rd Period

Scoring

(CAR) 8:10- Sebastian Aho (36) (assisted by Seth Jarvis (21) & Jaccob Slavin (37))

Thoughts

This was a much better period from the defense as Aho extends the lead just under halfway into the period and the defense shuts the door. Arizona only finished with five shots in the period and wasn't able to put any pressure on Raanta. The goal from Aho was a gritty one, knocking home a rebound after Jarvis creates a turnover in the neutral zone. The Canes did get a little sloppy and took some unnecessary penalties, but the kill was excellent and it felt like the Canes got more chances during those sessions. It was exactly what we've come to expect from this team as they showed just how much better they were than Arizona with this effort in the final frame to earn the two points. 

Canes' Three Stars of the Game

Third Star- Brett Pesce (2 Assists)

His defensive acumen is always going to be his biggest asset, but it's fun when he gets involved in the scoring. He added two assists tonight to come within one of tying his career-high in assists and points. He led all defensemen in ice time tonight for the Canes at just under 24 minutes and finished with three shots and three blocks. 

Second Star- Nino Niederreiter (Goal, Assist)

Tonight proved to me that he and Fast can play with any center on the team. They took over in the third period and Niederreiter contributed to two of them. He puts a shot on Vejmelka that comes right to Domi to make it 3-0 and then he scored one of his own five-hole after Arizona got on the board. He's another guy creeping close to his career-high in goals and he could eclipse that before the end of the year.

First Star- Max Domi (Goal, Assist)

The monkey is officially off his back as he finally found the back of the net on one of the most unassuming goals of the night. He centered the Canes' most consistent line and could've had more points than the two he finished with. The goal gets him to 100 for his career and was a huge goal at the time. It's nice to see him thriving in an elevated role.

Final Thoughts

Two points are two points regardless of how ugly it might have been. The second period wasn't easy on the eyes, but the defense played excellently in the periods on either side of it. The Domi line looked great and the other lines had their moments throughout. The penalty kill was another huge story, killing all four penalties and holding Arizona shotless on three of their four chances. Antti Raanta was good enough to win tonight. He didn't get much help on any of the Arizona goals, with all three coming in transition. You might like a stop on one of them, but there wasn't much he could do. I'll take whatever points the team can get as we head down the backstretch. There're only a handful of games remaining on the schedule, starting with a home game against Winnipeg on Thursday night. They'll play the Rangers tomorrow night, so we'll be cheering for them to take two points before coming to Raleigh. The Canes hold a slim two-point lead with the win tonight, so any help we can get would be great.