Sunday afternoon could not have gone much worse for the Carolina Hurricanes. The team lost 4-1 to the Calgary Flames at PNC Arena for its second-straight loss and fourth in the last five games, and lost forward and leading scorer Sebastian Aho to a possible combined head and knee injury in the third period.
The Canes (20-17-8) put up one of their worst efforts of the season against the Flames (25-16-4).
The team went 1 for 6 on the power play and could not generate much against Calgary goalie Mike Smith, who stopped 38 of 39. Carolina netminder Scott Darling was routinely hung out to dry as he allowed four goals on 30 shots.
“I didn’t think we were engaged in the game, period,” head coach Bill Peters said. “I didn’t think we skated; I didn’t think we had much emotional engagement to the game. I hope it’s flu-related; I really do. I thought we looked lethargic and were slow. Slow with the puck, slow making decisions. I hope it’s related to a little bit of bug that’s going around. If that’s the case, these five days [off] come at the right time.”
The nightmare moment for Carolina came less than a minute into the third period as Aho toe dragged in front of the net and took a high hit to the head from Flames defenseman Mark Giordano; the hit also appeared to impact his knee. Aho laid on the ice for a couple minutes before skating off with the help of a Carolina trainer and his teammates. Peters did not have an update on Aho after the game.
Canes forward Justin Williams immediately dropped the gloves with Giordano in defense of his teammate. Williams received an instigator penalty and 10-minute misconduct, and Giordano a major and match penalty (ejection) for an illegal check to the head. After two minutes of four on four play, the Canes would have received three minutes of unlimited power play to close out Giordano’s major, but a questionable high-sticking call against forward Jordan Staal negated much of that.
“It looked like we were on a break already,” Staal said. “It looked like the guys weren’t mentally ready. Physically the legs weren’t there, but we’ve got to be smarter if they aren’t. We’ve got to find ways to get them back quicker and get into the game. We didn’t do that tonight.”
Forward Brock McGinn came inches from bringing the Canes within 2-1 during the four on four, but hit the crossbar off a two-on-one rush. The Flames then went up 3-0 with defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s second goal off the resulting odd-man rush at the other end.
“It’s definitely a tough break,” McGinn said. “We thought it was in there and I think we kind of stopped a bit. That’s just a tough break for us but we’ve got to bounce back.”
Carolina could not score on the remaining portion of Giordano’s major after Staal’s penalty expired, as that opportunity to get back in the game went completely by the wayside.
Calgary took a quick 1-0 lead just over six minutes in, as forward Matt Stajan took a pass from forward Curtis Lazar in the dead slot after Canes defenseman Justin Faulk lost his stick trying to knock the puck away from Lazar on the boards and put it home.
The Flames doubled their lead with 1:13 to play in the first; Hamilton found open space between the circles and snapped it over Darling’s glove to make it 2-0.
Carolina got an excellent chance to at least cut the lead in half with back-to-back power plays late in the second period, but could not convert on either.
The Flames added insult to injury with a power-play goal from forward Matthew Tkachuk with less than eight minutes to go to make it 4-0.
Forward Lee Stempniak cashed in for Carolina’s lone goal of the game and his first of the season on a power play with less than five minutes left. The veteran forward has two points in two games since missing the first three months and change of the year due to injury.
The Canes will now take five days off for the league-mandated bye week. The team will come back with work to do in order to end its eight-year playoff drought, and will need to spend the break reflecting on the kind of effort it needs to do so.
“You’re going to have to wrap your head around the identity of our team and how we have to play to be successful,” Peters said. “The nights that we’re not the hardest-working team, I don’t know our record, but it wouldn’t be flattering. If we’re not going to wrap our head around the fact that we have to start on time each and every night and outwork our opponent, then it’s going to be a frustrating second half.”
Forward Elias Lindholm reacts to a call during the game against the Calgary Flames, Sunday, Jan. 14, in PNC Arena. The Canes lost, 4-1.
