A bad second period dooms the Canes
There had been hopes that the Christmas Break would be what the Carolina Hurricanes would need in order to shake off a 5-5-0 last 10 stretch, but instead a lot of the same problems that had plagued the team before the break reared their head in a 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils. You can take your pick of issues—be it forgetful defense, goaltending not making the necessary stops, or the two lines loaded with the stars of the team continuing to be held without points.
The Canes started the game well, at least. The first period saw the Hurricanes dominate the Devils in shots, and that work paid off as Jacob Markstrom wasn’t quite able to put the full squeeze on a shot, and the heads up play by Eric Robinson batted the squirting puck into the net. The fact that the ref wasn’t intending to call the play dead would come into play later.
Unfortunately for the Canes, the Devils showed why they have been at the top of the division for this season. In the span of 42 seconds, the Devils completely wiped away the good fifteen minutes the Canes played and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. First off, Ondrej Palat was able to tap in a shot by Johnathan Kovacevic which had Canes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov looking out wondering where Palat came from. Then, on the face off, the puck would go deep into the Devils’ zone, and Luke Hughes threaded a beautfiul pass to a rushing Stefan Noesen, creating a 2-on-1. As Noesen had fifteen goals coming in, all the attention when to him. So, he passed to an open Nico Hischier, who slammed it past Kochetkov to give the Devils that 2-1 lead.
The Canes started the second period on the Power Play and took advantage to get set up in the zone. As it expired and Dougie Hamilton was sprinting to try and cover an open Brent Burns, Burns blasted it on net to tie the score just 22 seconds into the second.
The momentum wouldn’t last for Carolina, though. Four minutes later Luke Hughes picked up his second point of the night and first goal. The Canes just did a poor job of getting the puck out of the zone, and Hughes was able to skate almost unencumbered to the net as he was able to take advantage of a lucky hop. The Devils had their one goal lead back. Then four more minutes later, Dawson Mercer took advantage of poor rebound control from Kochetkov and shot it point blank past the netminder. Meanwhile on the other side of the ice, Markstrom continued to make stellar save after stellar save as the Staal and Jost lines tried to get the Canes back into it.
The Canes would luck out as a puck squirted out of Kochetkov’s control late in the second to potentially put the Canes down 5-2, but the referees ruled they were calling the play dead before it went in, and kept that call after a review. It would have been interesting if the call on the ice changed to a goal if Rod Brind’Amour would have challenged for interference as Noesen was pretty clearly pushing on Kochetkov as he was holding onto the puck in the paint.
The third period passed without either side scoring, as the Canes had a fruitless push at the end with Kochetkov out of the net for the last three minutes. The Devils celebrated the win, and now both teams will head back to Raleigh for the fourth and final meetup of the regular season. The Canes will hope the game will seek a 2-2 series split against the Devils with both squads winning at home.