Sometimes a goalie just stands on his head and the opposing team has to tip its hat and move on.
That was the case in the Carolina Hurricanes’ 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators Friday night. Despite having a handful of grade-A chances, the Hurricanes couldn’t find a way to get the puck past Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark as they dropped their fifth game in the last seven contests.
While Ullmark was on top of his game, captain Jordan Staal didn’t think his team did enough to disrupt the former Vezina-winning goaltender.
“We didn’t do a great job getting in front of him,” Staal said. “On a couple of rush chances he made some big saves but in zone I think we could’ve done a better job being in front of him on some of our point shots.”
In what ended up becoming the game-winning goal in the first period, the Senators did exactly what Staal lamented his team for not doing. Just over four minutes into the second period, capitalizing on a failed clear attempt, right wing Michael Amadio found center Shane Pinto in the slot who, off one knee, scored just his second goal of the year.
Pinto’s first goal of the night wouldn’t have been possible without center Nick Cousins setting a perfect screen in front of Canes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov. Pinto, who scored the empty-netter at the end of the game, had just three points in 20 games coming into the match.
“He deserved it,” Ullmark said. “He’s been blocking shots. He’s been taking high danger face offs, late faceoffs, all these sort of things. Backchecking, forechecking, trying to do everything. I’m very happy that he got rewarded today.”
Kochetkov had his fair share of showstopping saves but Ullmark’s highlights showed the difference between a good goalie and one that has some hardware to back up his play.
Whether it was a glove, blocker, pad or even face mask, Ullmark used every inch of equipment to earn his 10th career NHL shutout.
“Can’t say enough about him,” said Pinto. “He’s the reason we won that game. So, I mean, we’re happy to have him.”
Despite having two of the top three power-play point scorers in the NHL, the Hurricanes went 0-2 for on the man advantage with both opportunities coming in the opening period. The Canes have lived and died by their power play recently as five-on-five play hasn’t been up to par.
“We had some chances tonight and they didn’t go in, but not what we’ve used to been seeing I think five on five,” Staal said. “Power play had a chance to kind of get us going, and didn’t, and we’ve been relying on that maybe a little bit too much this year, but our five-on-five play, there’s a little more there.”
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour has shuffled the lines like a Vegas blackjack dealer to try to infuse any sort of juice into the offense but to no avail. The constant shuffling anytime the team enters a rut seems to make it hard for the players to get out of these situations without relying on someone new being placed on their line. There will be bad games, but Brind’Amour needs to trust who he puts out there without mixing it up every time things go south.
The Hurricanes weren’t given anything easy as the Senators did a good job of keeping the puck out of the middle of the ice and forcing the Canes to take shots from the blue line. And when the shots did come from long range, Ottawa didn’t hesitate to put bodies in the puck’s path, finishing the game 16 blocked shots.
“We had to grind to get our opportunities,” Brind’Amour said. “Had a couple that went off the knob. That’s an inch here or there, the game’s a little different. But I like the effort, and I like the process of how we went about the game.”
Up next, the Hurricanes will host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. Puck drop is set for 5 p.m.
