The Carolina Hurricanes suffered their first home loss of the season at Lenovo Center, falling 6-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights. The game marked Carolina’s return to home ice after a 17-day road stretch.
Andrei Svechnikov opened scoring for the Hurricanes with his first goal of the season during an early power play. However, Vegas responded with two goals from Pavel Dorofeyev before the end of the first period.
Carolina faced further challenges in the second period as defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere exited due to a lower-body injury and Joel Nystrom left after being struck by a puck. Despite playing with only four defensemen and facing 19 shots from Vegas in that frame, Jordan Martinook scored for Carolina, tying the game at 2-2 entering the third period.
Early in the final period, Logan Stankoven gave Carolina another lead. Brett Howden soon tied it for Vegas, and Jack Eichel scored twice late in regulation before an empty-net goal sealed the result for the visitors.
Frederik Andersen made 29 saves on 34 shots in net for Carolina; both of his losses this season have come against Vegas.
Sebastian Aho registered an assist to extend his point streak to nine games, which is now the second-longest by a Finnish player at season start in NHL history behind his own record set in 2018-19. Svechnikov’s goal ended a drought of 16 unsuccessful power plays for Carolina; he led last season’s team with ten power-play goals. Rookie Alexander Nikishin logged a career-high 27:33 minutes on ice and led or tied for team highs in shots (4), hits (3), and blocked shots (3). Domenick Fensore appeared in his first NHL game this season and third overall, recording over 19 minutes on ice.
Tuesday also marked Fensore’s regular-season debut at home along with Bradly Nadeau and Joel Nystrom.
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour commented on how penalties affected momentum: “We came out great, then we had two (penalties). That flipped the game. Their best players started getting going, and then it just kept going. It felt like we were going in the box a lot. We’re going to make mistakes. They’re a good team, and they’re going to force you. We were playing with a lot of inexperience (on defense), but I thought they hung in there. Somehow, we found our way into a tie game, and with five minutes to go, we made a bad decision… We’ve got to make better decisions there; that’s really the difference, especially when their best players are out there. They’re going to make you pay.”
Team captain Jordan Staal reflected on defensive struggles: “Obviously, we were playing in our end quite a bit in that second period, and I think they smelled blood. We made it through the second period, and the third period was great. We worked hard, made some good plays, and battled back, but then it was a tough ending. We have to find ways to win and be smarter, tonight and other nights.”
Jalen Chatfield addressed overcoming adversity: “(We didn’t) get the job done. We’re down a few guys, we know that, but we battled hard. We’ve got the group in here that when we face adversity we can get through it. We just have to dig in on details play better and finish stronger.”
Jordan Martinook spoke about moving forward: “Our job in here is to try and win hockey games,and we haven’t done that last couple nights.We’ve got come out Thursday with mindset we’re going dictate every part of game.I have faith we’re do that.We’ll meet figure what can get better at,get back makes us successful.We’re kind away from little.I know missing some key pieces,but can still bring some guys along way.”
The Hurricanes will practice Wednesday ahead of their next home game against New York Islanders scheduled for Thursday evening.
