Did the Carolina Hurricane leave a lucky horseshoe in Raleigh?
The 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks came after a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken, and it certainly wasn’t an easy deal, no matter how much distance in the standings one would try to indicate.
Andrei Svechnikov spent half the game with a plug in the nose after taking a puck in the face, while two goals came off the stick of the Hurricanes’ own defenseman, another due to a rare five-on-three penalty kill, and another after Jakob Slavin was caught without his stick.
However, the Hurricanes still had some luck left.
Although they trailed 2–1 at the end of the first period, they took the lead for the rest of the game as the second frame opened.
Sebastian Aho scored the fourth goal of the game for Carolina and, with it, logged his eighth 60-point season, becoming the fourth Finnish player in NHL history to accomplish this feat.
Nikolaj Ehlers, meanwhile, was up for grabs as he not only scored the game-winning goal, but also notched the seventh NHL hat trick of his career.
Nonetheless, despite some issues in their play, the Hurricanes kept the pressure on the Canucks throughout the game, creating 12 high-danger scoring chances while only allowing three.
A reunion a year in the making
This time last year, Logan Stankoven was a member of the Dallas Stars, preparing for a game in his home province of British Columbia as they had to battle the Canucks on an upcoming road trip. Meanwhile, around 500 family members and friends had tickets to support him from the stands.
Of course, that reunion did not come to fruition, as Stankoven was traded to the Hurricanes at the NHL trade deadline. Instead, his battalion watched him face the Winnipeg Jets from a sports bar across the street from Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
However, it was a different story on Wednesday. The Canucks’ own arena erupted into loud chants of ‘Let’s Go Hurricanes’ as an estimated 150 people came to cheer on Stankoven.
It may have taken them a while to gel, but they’ve certainly got a great show.
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