On his penultimate save of the game, Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Spencer Martin made a glove save on Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk. Martin held on to the puck, then tossed it back at Tkachuk while staring him down.
That save — with 35 seconds left in the third period — encapsulated Martin’s performance against the Senators. Earlier in the game, left wing Eric Robinson pushed Ottawa center Ridly Greig into Martin, causing Greig to fall on Martin. Despite his teammates doing, Martin proceeded to take a couple of whacks at Greig while he was on the ice.
With that intensity, Martin recorded his first career shutout in the Hurricanes (12-4-0) 4-0 win over the Senators (8-8-1) Saturday night at Lenovo Center.
“I probably went too far there,” Martin said of throwing the puck at Tkachuk. “But I was also riding off my emotion to play well tonight.”
On Monday, Martin was called up from the Chicago Wolves, Carolina’s AHL affiliate. With goaltenders Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov out with an injury, Martin was forced into action and stood up to the challenge against a Senators team that hadn’t been held scoreless all season.
“I don’t look at it as a tough situation, because tougher would be me not being where I want to be,” Martin said. “I really feel like it’s meant to be that I get the chance, so in that case [I’m] enjoying it and trying to do my best.”
It wasn’t one of those games where Martin had a strong defense in front of him and wasn’t forced to make tough saves either. At the end of the second period, he stopped a two-on-one breakaway and was rock-solid on all four of the Senators’ power plays.
“That’s the most important position and that was a great game by him that enabled us to get the victory,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “He made some big saves and there was a lot of really close calls [where he] saved us.”
Along with Martin’s performance, the Hurricanes’ offense continued to fire on all cylinders. In 10 of the Hurricanes’ past 11 games, they’ve scored four goals and tonight was no exception. Half of the goals came on the man advantage — a special teams group that continues to grow hotter.
Coming out of the first intermission, the Hurricanes capitalized on the power play when center Sebastian Aho netted his first goal in seven games. Winning the faceoff, center Martin Necas got the puck back from defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and patiently waited for a lane to open up, finding Aho who then one-timed it past the outstretched Senator netminder Anton Forsberg.
With Aho scoring on a five-on-three, the second power play carried over into the third, where rookie right wing Jackson Blake netted his fifth goal of his rookie campaign. Blake corralled a loose puck off a deflection and beat Forsberg, who couldn’t react quick enough to the change of possession.
“His other part of his game has been good too and that’s why you reward him,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s got the skill, the talent and the understanding to play that position and I think he’ll get better here as we move along.”
Only one rookie has more goals than Blake, but it isn’t just his goals that are helping drive the offense. Blake has an innate ability to hunt down pucks and win 50/50 battles. With a rotating cast of linemates, he continues to find success by providing opportunities to whoever he plays with.
“That’s one thing you can control, if you’re not hunting pucks what’re you doing out there?” Blake said. “I established that this year to kind of set the tone a little bit for me as a player.”
The only five-on-five goal of the game came eight minutes into the first when left wing Jordan Martinook scored from an impossible angle. With help from center Jordan Staal, Martinook got the puck on his stick and quickly fired a shot on goal from below the goal line that trickled through Forsberg’s five-hole and into the back of the net.
Although all eyes have been on Necas’ recent performances and 12-game point streak, Martinook’s scoring output has largely flown under the radar. Not scoring for the team’s first 10 games, Martinook caught fire and has six goals in his last six games.
Recording just his second multi-point game of the season, his second came on an assist that rounded out the night’s scoring. With the Senators pulling their goalie, Martinook sprung Staal and left wing William Carrier on a breakaway where the latter calmly skated the puck into the empty net to finalize the score at 4-0.
Next, the Hurricanes will play the last leg of a back-to-back when they host St. Louis Blues on Sunday, Nov. 17. Puck drop is set for 5 p.m.
