It may not have been the prettiest of his career, but right wing Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal with the Carolina Hurricanes in a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night at Lenovo Center.
Five minutes into the second period, center Jack Roslovic dropped off a no-look drop pass to Rantanen who snapped a shot through the five-hole of Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom that trickled into the back of the net after it hit his pad.
“Roslovic made a heck of a play on the entry,” Rantanen said. “Glad to help the team that way.”
It hasn’t even been a week since Rantanen was traded to the Hurricanes, and he has admitted he was shocked when it happened. He loved playing in Colorado so much that he was willing to take a pay cut. But now that he’s had time to process the trade, he’s happy to be on a winning team and his new teammates have made the adjustment easier.
“It’s not easy, but the guys make it easier, for sure,” Rantanen said. “They’re very tight with each other which is obviously nice to see and easy to come into because it’s so tight. It’s gonna take a little bit more time to get fully comfortable with everything and on the ice that comes with instinct, no thinking at all, which was better today, for sure.”
With center Sebastian Aho and left wing Taylor Hall out with an illness that is running through the Hurricanes locker room, the Canes were down a skater the whole night. Even with the team recalling center Ryan Suzuki from the Chicago Wolves to make his NHL debut, many players took on an added workload.
“We kind of hung around,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Considering what we’re missing. And then we have a couple guys that we’re not feeling 100% that’s for sure. So [we] gutted it out and we’ll move on.”
Suzuki had the least amount of time-on-ice of any player for either team as he was thrust into the lineup — only arriving in Raleigh 15 minutes before warm-ups. He is the second Hurricane to make their debut this season joining his Wolves teammate for much of the year left wing Juha Jaaska.
“I didn’t really get to think about it,” Suzuki said. “I felt like if I had a night to sleep on it, I would work myself up a little bit. So it was nice to just get here and get on the ice.”
The two were able to find chemistry together on the make-shift fourth line as both of them finished with a positive plus-minus. Jaaska’s two assists on the opening and game-winning goal earned him his first multi-point NHL performance.
“Super cool. I was so happy to see him here,” Jaaska said. “We played pretty good today, pretty good shifts today. It was super cool. I’m so happy for him.”
Jaaska played a key role in giving the Hurricanes a lead when he saucered a pass over to center Seth Jarvis while short-handed. Jarvis settled the pass and fired a shot past Soderblom for a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Jarvis’ goal was quickly answered by Chicago right wing Ilya Mikheyev less than two minutes later as he found some space by defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and made the Canes pay. The Blackhawks had three shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, but the score was tied heading into the intermission.
Rantanen re-established the lead in the second, and defenseman Jaccob Slavin doubled up the lead a minute later as he finished a shot from right wing Jackson Blake that bounced off the crossbar for a 3-1 lead going into the last intermission.
Despite Blackhawk center Connor Bedard netting his 15th goal of the year 6:29 into the third, Slavin’s tap-in was enough to give the Hurricanes two points. The win extends the team’s point streak to seven games, having won six of those.
The Canes look to extend the streak on Saturday when they take on the Los Angeles Kings in Raleigh. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
