In Raleigh, Pyotr Kochetkov made 37 saves and the Hurricanes downed the New Jersey Devils, 4-1, on Tuesday night.
“He stole the show for sure, ‘Kuchie’ was our best player by far,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “Not our best [as a team]. They created a lot of offense and got us on our heels a little bit.”
Carolina improved to 20-6-6.
“We weren’t very good, and they were good. I give them a lot of credit for doing what they wanted to do,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were able to capitalize on a few of their mistakes. Our goalie obviously was great tonight.”Jack
Hughes was the sole striker for New Jersey, his third period goal cut the Canes lead, at the time, to 3-1.
“Missed nets on some great opportunities, in on breakaways [when] we don’t score,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “There was a lot of stuff I thought we did really well. We had about four breakdowns and three of them on goals. When we beat ourselves on those goals and you’re not scoring, we needed to hang around the game a little bit tighter.”
New Jersey dropped to 21-9-2.
Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike from Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Jordan Staal and Teuvo Teravainen scored in the second period to give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead.
“Too many odd-man rushes. It cost us goals,” New Jersey captain Nico Hischier said. “It wasn’t lacking on compete tonight. I think we battled hard. We’re just beating ourselves right now and that’s definitely frustrating.
“At some point, it’s not acceptable anymore. We’ve just got to be smarter. We’re beating ourselves here.”
Stefan Noesen scored at 16:59 to give the Canes a 4-1 lead and the final score.
“He’s good around the net. He’s very crafty,” Brind’Amour said. “That was a big goal. It kind of put the game away.”
Vitek Vanecek made 10 saves through two periods, and surrendered three goals.
Mackenzie Blackwood made six saves in relief in the third period.
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