In Raleigh, James Reimer made 26 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the visiting Dallas Stars, 4-3, on Sunday after a skills competition.
Jamie Benn, Jamie Oleksiak and Andrew Cogliano were the Stars’ strikers.
“The result is obviously not what we wanted,” Benn said. “They’re a good team. They came out flying. I thought we got better as the game went on. We’re right on the brink of being really dangerous.”
Jordan Staal, Brock McGinn and Nino Niederreiter scored in regulation for Carolina.
“We’re very happy with the way we’re playing,” Staal said. “It’s our identity we’ve wanted to build for the last few years. We were fortunate to get a few bounces, but that happens with a lot of hard work.”
The Canes have won four straight and improved to 5-1-0Â on the season.
Carolina needed the late strike from Niederreiter to get the game to extra time.
“I knew I didn’t have a lot of speed going, so I knew I had to take that shot and risk it, going far side, high,” Niederreiter said. “I’m glad it went in.”
The Canes got skills goals from Dougie Hamilton and Vincent Trocheck for the win.
“Special teams are so important because it’s just so hard to score 5-on-5,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Everybody is dialed in on how to defend. The whole (penalty) kill in general has been great. It’s been different guys having to figure it out.”
Dallas dropped their second straight after going 4-0- in their late start to the campaign.
“It’s nice to contribute whenever you can,” Cogliano said. “[Comeau] made a great pass across the ice, and when you get opportunities like that in this league, you’ve got to make the most of them. It was a big goal for our team, and I was happy to contribute for that.”
Anton Khudobin made 37 saves in the loss.
“In the second period, 5-on-5, we started carrying the play,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “So that looked a lot more like the Dallas Stars. We had some great opportunities, a couple of posts, and that carried over into the third.”
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