Canes edges Pens, 2-1

In Raleigh, the Hurricanes too a 20 lead into the third period on Saturday, and held off the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 2-1 win.

Frederik Andersen made 34 save in the win.

“I’ll take the two wins for sure,” Andersen said. “You’ve got to keep building on just feeling good. Anyone who has been out longer periods of time will tell you they miss everything about playing and being part of the group, so it feels good to be back.”

The Canes improved to 27-9-7.

Brady Skjei scored in the first period to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.

“If you can wait a little longer and see him go down, you can usually cut to the middle and try to make a play,” Skjei said. “Luckily [DeSmith] bit, and I got to the middle.”

Pittsburgh dropped to 21-15-6.

“We’re trying to play the game the right way,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “There are different ways to create offense against a team like this. You don’t get a ton off the rush, that’s the challenge when you play a team like Carolina.”

Jalen Chatfield pushed the Canes lead to 2-0 near the midway point of the second.

“It was a beautiful play,” Chatfield said. “[The pass] was right in my wheelhouse, got a good shot and it went in.”

Rickard Rakell scored off the power play in the eighth minute of the third period to get the Pens within one, but Andersson held them for the win.

“I was trying to get it out of the zone and not give up a whistle, but obviously a worst-case scenario,” Andersen said. “It doesn’t matter how you get scored on, you’ve got to reset and finish the job. The guys helped out and we got the win.”

Casey DeSmith made 34 saves in the Pens loss.

“I thought we just played on our toes [in the third],” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We had some decent zone time and decent chances. We had some good looks and could have tied it up.”