The three-game sweep of the NHL from Sunday starts in Chicago where Eddie Lack made 35 saves in a rare start for the Hurricanes and Carolina beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1.
“We’re starting to get something going,” said former Blackhawk Kris Versteeg. “I think everyone’s starting to understand what it takes to play in this League, each and every day, and we’re finding ways to win even in tough buildings like [this] on a back-to-back.”
Justin Faulk and Victor Rask scored for the Canes.
“We’re going the right way,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “I made the mistake of watching our game against Chicago last year in this building [a 5-2 loss], and I had to turn it off. We’re a better team than we were at that time and we play more of a puck-possession game. We have the puck more [and] we look to hold onto it more.”
Corey Crawford took the loss on 25 saves.
“I think everyone was well-rested, so that should be to our advantage,” Marian Hossa said. “Obviously, we didn’t take advantage. This game, we should’ve played a little different. We didn’t have enough bodies going to the net and sacrificing to get the ugly goals.”
Brent Seabrook scored the lone Chicago goal.
In Brooklyn, the Toronto Maple Leafs got a game-winning goal from former New York Islander, Michael Grabner, in a 3-1 win over the Isles.
“I’m just trying to help out the team, score some goals,” Grabner said. “I think milestones you look back after your career, but right now it’s just another goal.”
Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk added goals for the Leafs who improved to 5-1-2 in their last eight games.
Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves in the win.
“It’s about his confidence; it’s not about my confidence,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “If he’s confident, I’m confident. If he’s not confident, I’m not confident. If he’s not confident, his teammates aren’t confident. That’s just the tough thing for the goaltenders, but in our sport or in football with the quarterback it all comes down to that. When the goalie plays good no one talks about him and when he doesn’t play good everyone talks about him. So, good for Bernie here today.”
Nikolay Kulemin scored the lone Islanders goal.
“We didn’t generate much,” coach Jack Capuano said. “They got a lot of pucks to the net. It doesn’t matter how many chances they had. When you shoot pucks, you retrieve pucks.”
In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers won their sixth straight, 3-2 over the Columbus Blue Jackets, and with the losses piling up in Montreal, moved into first place in the Atlantic Division.
“It’s almost the new year, and being in first place means a lot,” coach Gerard Gallant said in video posted on the Panthers website. “Keep winning, keep getting points; it’s a lot of fun playing the way we’re playing.”
Aleksander Barkov scored twice and Aaron Ekblad added a goal in the win.
Florida dominated the first period in building a 2-0 lead when they took 19 shots on goal.
“That was probably our best period of the season,” Barkov said. “We had a lot of great chances. We only got a couple of goals. We could have had six or seven.”
Roberto Luongo made 16 saves for the win.
“We didn’t play a good first, but we found a way to get our legs underneath us and generate some offense,” coach John Tortorella said online. “I thought we played quicker [after the first period] and it started with our gaps in the neutral zone, it helped us turn some pucks over. But it’s not enough.”
Brandon Saad and Cam Atkinson scored for the Jackets and Curtis McElhinney had 29 saves in the loss.
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