Hurricanes rumble into two-week break: Takeaways from the Canes' home win over Utah

RALEIGH, N.C. — The cure for the Carolina Hurricanes’ recently ailing offense?

Apparently, a rough-and-tumble game against a young Utah team trying to claw its way back into the Western Conference wild-card race.

Who knew?

In a game that nearly saw the goalies come to blows at center ice, the Hurricanes punched where it mattered most — on the scoreboard.

Sebastian Aho continued his hot play of late with two goals, Seth Jarvis added two more and Pyotr Kochetkov made 37 saves as the Canes downed the Utah Hockey Club, 7-3, at Lenovo Center.

The win, Carolina’s first in four games, sends the team into the league’s two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off with some better vibes, and a bit more confidence in its offense, which had struggled of late.

Takeaways from the Canes’ matinee win:

Rough stuff provided a spark

Locked in a precarious one-goal game in the second period, the Canes were looking for a spark — and perhaps some better play from their defensemen.

They got both in one fell swoop.

After Utah’s Alex Kerfoot popped Jackson Blake along the boards with what appeared to be a shoulder-to-head hit, Carolina defenseman Brent Burns grabbed Kerfoot and started scuffling with the centerman. Blake returned to the play, and Burns received the only penalty on the play — two minutes for roughing — but the incident ignited the Canes.

On the ensuing Utah power play, it was Carolina that found the back of the net when Aho took a feed in front from Jarvis and tucked the puck past goalie Karel Vejmelka.

And then ... a goalie fight?

Almost.

With Utah pressing for a goal in the Canes’ zone late in the second, a handful of players started poking at the puck as Kochetkov smothered it. Two or three of the jabs landed after the puck was covered, the Russian goalie took exception and started shoving the Utah players himself as his defenders came to his aid.

While officials separated the players in the skirmish, Vejmelka skated from his crease toward the red line, shaking his gloves as if he wanted to engage Kochetkov. The Canes’ keeper skated up to his blue line before an official intercepted him and redirected him back to his net.

Moments later, the Hurricanes again slugged back on the scoreboard when Jarvis went into the Utah zone untouched off the faceoff and scored on the still-rattled Vejmelka.

As the second period ended, Vejmelka made his way toward Kochetkov while the teams skated off the ice to their respective dressing rooms, continuing to jaw at the Hurricanes goalie.

Heating up

Aho has been as consistent a scoring threat for the Hurricanes as anyone, and when he gets on a roll, he can spell a lot of trouble for opposing goaltenders.

Perhaps it’s not such a good thing that the Canes will be on an extended break for the next two weeks, the way he’s been finding the back of the net in recent games.

With two more goals Saturday — including a short-handed strike in the second period — Aho now has seven goals in his past nine games, and is a plus-4 in those contests. That followed a stretch of six scoreless games for the Finnish forward, who has now reached the 20-goal plateau in each of his nine seasons with the Hurricanes, and stands at 274 goals scored in 653 career regular-season games.

Hard work rewarded

The Hurricanes’ first goal followed a play that looked more likely to produce a goal for Utah — until Chatfield appeared.

Carolina defender Dmitry Orlov tried to keep the puck in at the Utah blue line, and did initially, but then he coughed up the puck passing it into empty space. As Utah streaked the other way, Chatfield crossed the ice from his own defensive position, pinched the play off on the defensive half wall, and chipped the puck to Andrei Svechnikov. The Russian winger got the puck ahead to Jordan Staal, who lumbered up the left side and drew a defender with him. He looked over, and saw he was on a 2-on-1 — with Chatfield.

Staal’s pass found Chatfield, who buried a shot top shelf for the first goal of the game to finish a play he’d started himself with a hustle play on the defensive end.

Goalie rotation holds

It’s been a straight-up goalie rotation for the Hurricanes since Frederik Andersen returned from a lengthy injury absence on Jan. 20, with he and Kochetkov alternating starts. Andersen’s first three games back, all wins, saw the Danish netminder allow seven goals and post a shutout. In his two starts since, he’s allowed six goals in two losses.

Kochetkov is now 3-1-1 with 12 goals allowed in five games, including Saturday.

Against Utah, Kochetkov wasn’t tested all that much early, but was engaged when he needed to be. The two goals he allowed came on a sharp snap shot from the top of the right circle that beat him high glove in the first, and a 5-hole goal on a breakaway in the second.

One thing that had been consistent for the Canes since the duo was reunited and started its rotation: the number of shots each goalie had faced. In his five games, Andersen saw an average of 23.8 shots per game, with a high of 26. Kochetkov saw 100 shots over four games prior to Saturday, with an average of 25 and a high of 30. Saturday, Utah landed 40 shots on target, with Kochetkov stopping 37 of them.

Finding some power

It had been a hot minute since the Hurricanes have scored on the power play.

Well, more like a cool 16 days.

Since Jarvis scored the Canes’ first goal of the game in the second period against Columbus in a 7-4 Carolina win on Jan. 23, the Hurricanes — who don’t draw a lot of penalties to begin with — had gone 0 for 14 on the power play. That stretch included six full games, parts of 21 periods, three wins, three regulation losses and one loss in overtime.

Saturday, the Canes had an early flurry of activity on their first chance with an extra skater at the tail end of the first period, but as the clock wound to zero, Utah had the better of play while short-handed. Carolina didn’t get any traction to open the second period, either.

Finally, in the second period, on the Canes’ second power play of the game, Jarvis book-ended the drought with his 21st goal of the season on a rifle of a slapshot from the top of the left circle that whistled past Vejmelka’s glove for a 2-1 Carolina lead.

Here six games, gone the next

Trying to integrate a new player, particularly one as skilled as Mikko Rantanen, into a lineup midseason is never easy, but that task becomes infinitely harder when the player in question has to miss time due to injury.

Rantanen, the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade between the Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks, has played six games since that deal. He has one goal and one assist — and a bevy of shots that have hit posts — while averaging 19 minutes, 41 seconds of ice time per game.

But Saturday, as the Canes tried to snap out of a three-game losing streak, Rantanen wasn’t in uniform, nursing a lower-body injury sustained in Carolina’s 2-1 loss at Minnesota on Thursday.

In that game, Rantanen was not on the ice when the team scored with the goalie pulled to get within one. He returned to the ice in the final minute, but as the Canes were looking for the equalizer, he was visibly hobbled as the puck zipped around the Minnesota zone.

While most of the Hurricanes’ players will get the next two weeks off to rest and recover during the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, Rantanen, along with Aho, Jaccob Slavin (United States) and Jarvis (Canada) are slated to play in the mid-season showcase.