To earn their third win in a row heading into the All-Star break, the Carolina Hurricanes found a last-minute game-winning goal courtesy of defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who sniped a perfect shot over the shoulder of Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram. Despite Ingram looking like a brick wall for 59 minutes, the Canes found a way to earn a big two points in the final minutes of the showdown.
With the win over Arizona (23-22-3), the Hurricanes (28-15-5) are now just two points behind the New York Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division. For the final 20 minutes, Carolina had a massive edge — outshooting the Coyotes 18-0 in the final frame.
“That’s a full five-man effort out there all around the ice,” said defenseman Jaccob Slavin. “That’s something we’ve always talked about in here is limiting their chances, and so when you limit them to that many shots, it’s always gonna help you to get a chance to win the game.”
The first 10 minutes of the game didn’t see much action offensively from either side. The Hurricanes had possession in the offensive zone, but the Coyotes made it tough to get shots in from close range. Arizona clogged up the high-danger areas and accumulated 24 blocked shots as a result.
Following a bad line change, the Coyotes got the first goal of the night from young center Logan Cooley. Arizona right wing Dylan Guenther skated with the puck into the zone and fired a shot on net, and goaltender Antti Raanta made the initial save but Cooley crashed the net and watched as the puck bounced off his body and into the goal.
The Canes’ best chance of the period came moments later, when center Martin Necas got loose on a breakaway. Splitting two defenders at the blue line, Necas received a stretch pass and went forehand-backhand to beat Ingram — but his attempt went off the post.
Carolina came out of the locker room buzzing after a frustrating first period that saw the Coyotes block 10 shots. The Canes dominated possession for most of the period and tied the game up with their lethal power play.
In a beautiful display of passing, defenseman Brent Burns found center Seth Jarvis streaking across the middle of the ice, who then set up Necas for a slap shot that he rocketed past Ingram. Since returning from injury, Necas has recorded a goal in four of the last five games.
Over the final 25 minutes of the game, Carolina didn’t allow a single shot on goal. Although the team was struggling to find the back of the net itself, it felt as if a goal was brewing for a long time. And just when it felt like the Canes might take an easy game to overtime, Orlov laid the hammer down.
Drawing two defenders on him, center Jack Drury found Orlov pinching up from the blue line and — from an impossible angle — Orlov sniped the top right corner of the goal. Even though he hit the post earlier in the game, Orlov stuck with it and got his third of the season.
“You have to be patient,” Orlov said. “Keep doing what you need to do; it can’t be frustrating.”
Thirteen seconds later, the Hurricanes doubled their lead when right wing Jesper Fast was on the fortunate side of a bouncing puck. Off the faceoff from Orlov’s goal, the Canes got the puck in deep, and, as they looked to get in tight, Ingram poke-checked the puck right into Fast, which redirected into the goal.
Since the Christmas break, Carolina has only missed out on a point in two of its 14 total games played. The team is finally coming together as most people thought they would, especially as more players continue to get healthy.
“We’ve been pushing for a long time, this whole month knowing they were going to get a break at some point,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We had a ton of home games and we knew we had to take advantage of them.”
With center Sebastian Aho heading to Toronto for the All-Star game, the rest of the Carolina Hurricanes will get nine days off before their next game. They’re set to face the Vancouver Canucks at PNC Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.
