In Raleigh, Antti Raanta made 24 saves, and the Hurricanes shut out the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0, on Tuesday night.
Carolina has an active 15-game point streak.
“Like we said this morning, you never really look behind, whether you’ve won 8-9 in a row or you lost eight,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It’s ‘What have you done for me lately?’ What’s important is right in front of you. Those are the kinds of things you probably look back on and reflect on. It doesn’t really matter much right now. It will probably mean more at the end of the year when we look back and [say], ‘That was a good stretch and got us to hopefully where we want to be.'”
The Canes improved to 23-6-6.
Martin Necas and Jesper Fast scored in the first period to give the Canes a 2-0 lead.
“We tried to play fast, play in their end,” Necas said. “I think the first period was really good. Then in the second, we didn’t have much, but in the third, we were kind of back on track.”
Chicago dropped to 8-21-4.
“I think we found our legs in the second period, and we were lucky that it was only 2-0,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I think the power play that started the second, we had a pretty good chance or two; we just missed a back door low. [Max] Domi’s down-the-hatch shot, I think those were two pretty good chances 5-on-3, but the power play really didn’t generate much after that on the 5-on-4s. We just came in too slow, and they’re too good and strong with their sticks at the blue line, so that was kind of frustrating.”
Carolina’s Jordan Martinook scored at 4:55 of the third for the 3-0 final.
Petr Mrazek made 46 saves, an NHL career high, in the loss.
“It’s a little frustrating not to get enough offense to give Petr some scoring support he needs,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I think we’ve got to be cleaner. Most of those shots were in the first period. I don’t know if there’s much we could have done better than just be a little sharper with our breakouts with the puck in the first period. I think that was pretty much the game right there.”
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