Hurricanes’ penalty kill a strength — until it wasn’t, in overtime against Panthers
The Carolina Hurricanes’ first penalty kill Saturday was clinical and perfectly executed, arguably their best of the season.
The last one? It was more critical, coming early in overtime, and may have badly damaged the Canes’ chances of winning the Stanley Cup.
When Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk whacked the puck past goalie Antti Raanta, the Panthers had scored on the power play, beaten the Canes 2-1, danced off the ice after another OT win and will head home with a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final.
After the Canes’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi was called for hooking at 1:39 of overtime, it took the Panthers 12 seconds to end it. Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin got his stick caught in Brent Burns’ skate blade, the Panthers grabbed the puck and Tkachuk was open on the backdoor for a Sam Reinhart pass.
Tkachuk, who won the marathon four-overtime game Thursday, again had the winning touch in Game 2 as the Panthers won their eighth consecutive playoff road game.
Will there be another game at PNC Arena this season? Unless the Canes win one of the next two games on the road, there will not be.
“It’s never going to be easy. We know that,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said in a quiet Canes locker room.
Not against a Panthers team that’s feeling it, that’s riding unflappable goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, that has no qualms in going into someone else’s building in the playoffs and finding ways to win.
In their opening-round series against the Boston Bruins, the NHL’s best team this season, the Panthers survived a heart-stopping moment when Boston’s Brad Marchand had a breakaway in the final seconds of regulation.
Marchand could have ended the series. He didn’t. Bobrovsky didn’t let it happen. And here the Panthers are, two wins away from playing for the Cup.
“Tonight we played pretty well,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We know how the two teams are going at it. I thought we had the better of it. We just haven’t found a way to score. That’s just it.
“These are tough when you’re right there. Obviously, the margins are tight and we haven’t got a bounce yet. Hopefully we can get one because that’s probably what we’re going to need.”
One edge the Hurricanes believed they had in the series was their penalty killing. Before Saturday, they had allowed three goals on 33 power plays, first in the NHL in the playoffs.
The Panthers were 0-3 against Carolina in Game 1, then 0-2 with two power-play shots in regulation Saturday. The Canes easily got to pucks and easily cleared the zone, earning roars from the PNC Arena crowd.
After defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was called for delay of game in the first period after flipping the puck over the glass, the Canes aggressively hounded the puck and forced mistakes. They were credited with six shorthanded shots and looked more dangerous 4-on-5 in that two-minute kill than they did 5-on-5 or 5-on-4 much of the game.
But Bobrovsky, who has been the difference in the first two games, made all the stops and that was that. The PNC Arena crowd was ready to explode. It didn’t get the chance.
In the overtime, Slavin jumped into a puck battle, only to have his stick wedge into Burns’ skate blade. Burns fell down and neither could recover quickly enough as Florida’s Sam Bennett grabbed the puck and passed to Reinhart, who found Tkachuk open.
“We’re playing hard and we’re playing well,” Slavin said of the Canes. “Special teams is always a game within the game and we’ve got to make sure we’re winning that.”
The Hurricanes’ mindset going to Florida, Staal said, will be that the first two games were hard-fought, winnable. The Canes didn’t win them, but played well enough for long enough to have a chance to win.
“It’s overtime, they’re tight games and we’re right there,” Staal said. “I didn’t hate the game at all. I thought we had our chances to win the game, again. We have to find a few things that can get us over the hump and steal some games down in Florida.
“We’re going to have to find a way. We have to find ways to get some mojo going.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2023 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Hurricanes’ penalty kill a strength — until it wasn’t, in overtime against Panthers."
