The Carolina Hurricanes chased the game all night, as the Philadelphia Flyers jumped ahead quickly early in the night – but once the dust settled, the skates stopped, and K’Andre Miller’s sticks were no longer breaking from sight, it was the Hurricanes who took a 2-0 lead in the series in round two.
Taylor Hall, who scored the game-winning goal, was analytically critical of the Hurricanes’ play during interviews in the first period, and tipped his hat to the Flyers in the process.
“They’re quick on the puck, they’re quick in the fight, and they made some good plays…not a good start for us.”
After the night’s events, Hall mentioned on stage that he doesn’t have his A-game, but mentioned that his time in the league had taught him how to dig in and find a good ‘B-minus game,’ as he called it.
Maybe a B-minus, but it earned Hall top marks with the first postseason overtime game-winner of his NHL career.
However, it was a difficult path for the Hurricanes to reach that conclusion…
The first period started very differently than the previous periods
Less than five minutes into the game, Jamie Drysdale found the back of the net on the power play to put the Flyers ahead and force the Hurricanes to trail for the first time this postseason. Adding insult to injury was Flyers captain Sean Couturier, who squeaked the puck through the five-hole after just 39 seconds.
Just after the halfway point of the first period, Nikolaj Ehlers launched a heck of a one-timer from the right face-off circle on the power play — served up by Jackson Blake with some help from Miller — to cut the Flyers’ lead in half.
It was Ehlers’ first postseason goal with the Hurricanes.
Rod Brind’Amour plugged into a blender and threw in a pair of forward lines
Neither team could do anything else for the remainder of the first period and the entirety of the second.
Thus, head coach Rod Brind’Amour did as he does when he tries to make things happen for his team and changed a few players, sending Jordan Martinook to play on the top line with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, while moving Seth Jarvis to play on the third line with Jordan Staal and Nikolaj Ehlers.
Lo and behold, that little spark lit things up for Jarvis, who, with the help of both of his new linemates, was able to tie the game midway through the third period. It was his first goal this season.
Bonus hockey, baby
Chances continued to be exchanged, but ultimately, things went into overtime – and it was a brutal extra frame for Frederik Andersen. Lasting 18:54, he faced his most shots in a single frame as the Hurricanes fell 15–8. Through defensive breakdowns, breakaways and at least three broken sticks for Miller, the Danish netminder turned it all around.
Then came the final goal – which Hall called ‘gritty’, he fell to his knees as the puck bounced around, Blake kept it alive before being pushed by the blade of Hall’s stick.
“Oh, it took a lot,” Hall said on the bench about what it took to win the game. “You know, maybe not our strongest effort. Freddy was unreal in overtime – but that’s hockey. They’re a good team, and they’re going to fight to the end.”
As for Ehlers, when he was on stage discussing his come-from-behind victory, he provided a solid analysis.
“You want adversity,” he told the media. “We had that in the Ottawa series as well. Because it’s going to happen again. And now, we know what we need to do the next time it happens.”
storm game notes
Drysdale’s game-opening goal ended an insane 618–51 streak of the Hurricanes not trailing in a game.
Logan Stankoven’s five-game postseason goal streak officially ended as he failed to get on the scoresheet.
Between the Hurricanes (6) and Flyers (7), there were a total of 13 power plays. This was the most confrontation between these two in a single game this season.
The second round between the Hurricanes and Flyers will continue on Thursday at 8:00 pm EDT, allowing an extra day for travel between games. Additionally, this would be the only game of the day.
#Hurricanes #bounce #Flyers #shaky #play
