Carolina is now 4-1 on the State Fair Road Trip, with just one game left
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Seattle Kraken on Saturday Night in dominant fashion 4-1, and the game arguably wasn’t that close.
Just like they did against Calgary, the Hurricanes were the aggressors early, and just like against the Flames, the goalie kept his team in play. Carolina ripped off fourteen shots to Seattle’s five in the first period and pelted 39 shots over all to Seattle’s 19.
Joey Daccord was up to the task early, but he soon found himself in a 1-0 hole when the suddenly hot Canes Power Play cashed in again thanks to a shot by Andrei Svechnikov. The communication and passing ability between the top unit has improved each game, and it was on display with the first goal. Shayne Gostisbehere didn’t get a point on the play, but he set up the goal by going after the puck and drawing several Kraken his way. That allowed Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas to start rushing to the net, and their passing led to the beautiful goal by Svechnikov.
The Canes tried to increase this lead several times in the first but were unable to thanks to the work of Daccord. They were unable to take advantage of a penalty right after the first goal, and went into the locker room only up 1-0 after the first.
The frustration continued for the Canes in the second period, a period where they outshot the Kraken fifteen to seven. Finally, with just under four minutes left in the period Jack Drury got on the score sheet for the first time this season, and helped Jackson Blake get his first NHL assist to give the Canes the all-important 2-0 lead.
It was a beautiful pass to the streaking Drury who was able to slip behind the goalie and slip the puck in. After that goal, it looked like the Canes were going to take deeper control of the game as Yanni Gourde was called for a four minute high-sticking to Seth Jarvis. The hit was hard enough to draw blood under Jarvis’ eye, and Jarvis would later say he couldn’t see anything out of that eye by the end of the night.
Seattle fought to get within one in the third thanks to a Jared McCann shot that was the only one to get past Frederick Andersen. Before Seattle could pull the goalie, though, Jarvis would exact his revenge the best way he could—with an absolute beauty of a goal to get the Canes back up by two.
Dmitry Orlov would add an empty netter to give the Canes their 4-1 win.
The State Fair Road trip ends Monday night in Vancouver, and the Canes look to keep the hot streak going with a win over the Canucks.