It seems the Carolina Hurricanes just needed to afford Nino Niederreiter a change of scenery, on Wednesday night he struck for two more goals for the Canes in a 5-2 win over the host Vancouver Canucks.
All seven goals came in the middle frame.
Teuvo Teravainen had a goal in Canes’ win in Vancouver – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
“It’s definitely a lot to take in but, at the same time, I know how good Aho is and [Justin] Williams is,” Niederreiter said. “They are great playmakers, and for me, it’s just trying to find the open ice and like tonight a terrific pass by Aho and I had a chance to do the rest.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves, in his first NHL start, to get the win.
“One of my goalie coaches told me growing up, ‘Play every game like it’s the biggest game of your life, so when you play the biggest game of your life, it’s just another game,’ so that’s just kind of how I looked at today,” Nedeljkovic said. “Just another Wednesday night game.”
Josh Leivo and Sven Baertschi struck for the Canucks.
“I thought we struggled against their quickness tonight. They’re a quick team, and we knew it. And we struggled against it,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said.
Vancouver dropped to 23-22-6.
“We’ve got to be a lot better coming back from the break if we’re going to make a run for it,” Vancouver’s Bo Horvat said.
Teuvo Teravainen, Dougie Hamilton and Greg McKegg also scored for the Canes.
“We played last night and it’s the last game before we get a break, but they dug in,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We haven’t had a lot of success here, so tonight was nice.”
Carolina improved to 24-20-6.
[WATCH:Â All Hurricanes vs. Canucks highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves in the loss.
“We gave ourselves a chance there in the second period, and right after that, we just kind of took our foot off the gas and just gave up way too many Grade A opportunities in our slot,” Horvat said. “[Markstrom] didn’t have a chance.”
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