The Carolina Hurricanes lost their fourth-straight home game Sunday evening, blowing a late lead against the Anaheim Ducks to lose 4-3 in a shootout at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes (4-4-2) fell behind 2-0 early in the game, before battling back to grab a 3-2 lead thanks to a rocket off the stick of co-captain defenseman Justin Faulk late in the second period. However, Carolina couldn’t hold onto its advantage as Ducks (6-4-1) forward Jakob Silfverberg tallied late in the third period to send it to overtime.
“Three is enough to win. It’s a 3-2 league,” head coach Bill Peters said. “Let’s tighten up. We’re giving up too much as a team, giving up too many shots. Giving up too many scoring chances, giving up too many goals. That’s on everybody.”
Anaheim goaltender Ryan Miller, who was making his first start of the season, shined for the Ducks in the extra period, denying two Hurricanes breakaways from forwards Sebastian Aho and Victor Rask before stifling all three Carolina shootout attempts.
Ducks forward Corey Perry made the lone shot in the shootout, firing a hard wrister past Carolina goaltender Scott Darling to take an advantage. Aho would be denied by Miller on the following attempt, ending the game
Anaheim jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on the night, thanks to goals from forward Ondrej Kase and Derek Grant. Kase’s goal came immediately following a neutral-zone faceoff win for Anaheim, and Grant took advantage of a sloppy Hurricanes turnover to collect the puck in front of net and slot it past Darling.
“Tonight was another poor start that wasn’t even close,” co-captain forward Jordan Staal said. “I think we’ve been coming out flat to often and that’s not good enough. Tonight was another example of coming out flat, and it looked ugly.”
Carolina did fight its way back in the first period, cutting the lead to 2-1 on a power play goal from forward Jeff Skinner. The goal was Skinner’s seventh of the year, his most through the first 10 games of a season in his career.
The power play goal was long overdue for the Hurricanes, who failed earlier in the period with a man advantage that pushed them to an abysmal 1-14 on the power play at home this season.
The Ducks took their 2-1 lead into the first intermission, where Peters made a line change, breaking up the defensive pairing of Faulk and Noah Hanifin, who were on the ice for both Ducks goals in the first.
Faulk played the remainder of the game with Haydn Fleury, while Hanifin went with Trevor Van Riemsdyk. This line change paid off well for Carolina, as Anaheim’s only other goal came against the pairing of Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin.
“We had some guys that were minus-two right of the hop,” Peters said. “Obviously we didn’t need to keep that together. Changed the D up a little bit and it got a little bit better as the night went.”
Staal evened things at 2-2 with 6:30 left in the second period, after a phenomenal pass from Aho. Aho collected the puck behind the Anaheim goal, and placed a smooth pass through multiple defenders right to the stick of Staal in front of goal, who was able to finish on an open net.
Carolina tallied again in the middle period, as Faulk scored on an absolute rocket from the point that beat Miller with 1:27 left. It was Faulk’s first goal of the season, following a 17-goal campaign last year that saw the Canes blue-liner tied for second in the NHL among defensemen.
“We were quicker in the second,” Peters said. “I thought our D got the puck off their stick much better in the second and the third and allowed us to play fast.”
Anaheim poured it all out in the third period with a very aggressive style of play. This paid off for the Ducks late in the third with Silfverberg’s goal that tied things at 3-3 with 4:48 remaining.
“Learning ways to finish games is what we’ve got to do better,” Staal said. “Learning ways to continue to move forward in the third when you’re up. Finding ways to not be risky but at the same time to control the game and bury teams.”
After playing three games in the past four days, the Hurricanes will now get a short break before it heads out west for a two-game road trip against Colorado and Arizona. Carolina will be back at home to host the Florida Panthers on Nov. 7.
