Nino Niederreiter is fitting just fine in Raleigh these days; on Friday night, he scored twice in a the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
“We needed to calm it down a bit,” Niederreiter said. “We knew we had to get pucks in deep and outwork Edmonton. They had a great push, but at the end of the day we got the win.”
Lucas Wallmark had a goal in Carolina win over Oilers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Curtis McElhinney made 40 saves to get the win.
Carolina improved to 30-22-6.
“You need goaltending, especially on nights like tonight where we weren’t at our best,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It was one of those games where we didn’t get to our game at all.”
Leon Draisaitl scored the Oilers’ only goal.
Edmonton dropped to 24-25-8-5.
“We come and we play the right way, and we’re doing the right things,” Oilers center Connor McDavid said. “We just can’t seem to find a bounce. We’re having a lot of shots and creating chances, but that only gets you so far.”
Edmonton is 1-7-2 in their 10 matches.
“We’re getting down early in games, or we’re chasing the game halfway through, and that takes a lot of energy out of you,” Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. “I think if we got a lead we might be able to be even better.”
Lucas Wallmark also scored for Carolina.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Mikko Koskinen made 24 saves in the loss.
“They’re usually the team outshooting [opponents] by 10 or 15 shots. It just goes to show that we were a desperate hockey club today, but you don’t get the result. That’s the unfortunate part,” the Oilers’ Milan Lucic said on outshooting Carolina in the game.
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