The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in a shootout at Lenovo Center on Thursday, with a final score of 4-3. The Hurricanes managed to tie the game three times but ultimately fell short in the sixth round of the shootout.
The scoring started in the first period when Ilya Mikheyev put Chicago ahead with a shorthanded goal. Carolina responded quickly, as Joel Nystrom scored his first NHL goal after being set up by Jesperi Kotkaniemi. In the second period, Nick Lardis restored Chicago’s lead, but Jordan Staal tied it again for Carolina.
In the third period, Connor Murphy gave Chicago another lead, which lasted only 42 seconds before Jackson Blake equalized for Carolina. Overtime did not produce a winner, and both teams had chances before heading into the shootout. Andrei Svechnikov and Connor Bedard scored in the first five rounds of the shootout, but Oliver Moore secured the win for Chicago after Carolina was unable to score on Spencer Knight.
Frederik Andersen made 19 saves on 22 shots and stopped four out of six attempts in the shootout.
Joel Nystrom became the third Hurricanes defenseman this season to score his first NHL goal, joining Alexander Nikishin and Charles Alexis Legault. Nystrom now has nine points in 36 career games. Jackson Blake scored his second goal in three games and is one away from matching last year’s total.
The loss ended Carolina’s three-game winning streak but extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1).
Jordan Staal commented on the game: “I thought 5-on-5, it was a good game. There were opportunities to score goals, there was some pretty good defending and, for the most part, I think it was pretty even. The score showed that, and shootouts are shootouts.”
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour said: “If you win the game or lose it, you’re going to find positives and negatives. Obviously, you work with both. There were some good things in that game, not a lot, but I like the pushback. Getting right back to it, get a goal to tie it up a couple of times, okay, that’s great, but why did we get down? It wasn’t a great game by us, top guys [were] ‘ehh,’ kind of non-factors. That’s more probably on the power play stuff. When they’re out there, we’ve got to make it count.”
Staal also addressed Carolina’s power play struggles: “[The power play] wasn’t great tonight. Obviously, it’s a good penalty kill, for one. I think they’re one of the top [units] in the league. We weren’t very sharp; we were trying to make plays that we probably weren’t supposed to be doing. A couple off-cue passes and a little bouncing pucks, and next thing you know they’ve killed all of them. That definitely hurt us tonight.”
Brind’Amour spoke about his team’s response during the game: “We get down, and we just kept playing. Good play by Stanks there to get us right back in the game and get us a point. We had our opportunity, and obviously shootouts whatever. You get to that point; it is what is…”
Nystrom reflected on scoring his first NHL goal: “Of course I’m happy to get my first goal. I’ve been waiting for it. It was a great pass from KK and I had a lot of space there so I just tried to shoot it and I’m happy to see it went in.”
Carolina will practice Friday before traveling to Ottawa for their next matchup against the Senators on Saturday.
