The Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night (Jan. 9) hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first of three meetings this season. Rod Brind’Amour’s side are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, while the Maple Leafs are on a five-game winning streak. Who would find their way into a win between the two sides in the Eastern Conference? As the final horn sounded, the Hurricanes took game one of the regular season meetings with a 6-3 win.
Game Recap
While the end was great for Hurricanes fans, the first 10 minutes of the game differed from the matchup’s result. The Maple Leafs were up 2-0 after a pair of goals from Nick Robertson (seventh goal) and William Nylander (24th) made it seem it would be all Toronto as they looked like the better team. Robertson scored under two minutes into the game and Nylander just under seven and a half minutes. However, Eric Robinson and Jordan Staal had other ideas. Six minutes after the Maple Leafs made it 2-0, the Hurricanes scored a pair of their own, they just decided to do it within 17 seconds of each other.
Some great individual play from Martin Necas saw the Hurricanes attack the Maples Leafs’ zone and pass the puck to Ty Smith who found Robinson in front of the visitor’s goal. While battling for the puck, Robinson using his body was able to get the shot off and past Joseph Woll to cut the lead in half. Then right away just 17 seconds later, the captain himself would tie the game up 2-2 after some great passing from Andrei Svechnikov and Jaccob Slavin. Svechnikov below the red line found Staal in front of the net and just put it in the right spot to tie the game before the first goal was done being announced. After one period, we saw four goals, two from each side.
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The second period did not take long for the Hurricanes to get their first lead of the night. Just 35 seconds into the middle frame, once again it was captain Staal to get the home side up 3-2 on a shorthanded marker. A sensational pass from Jordan Martinook found Staal on a two-on-one rush chance to have the Hurricanes score three unanswered goals. However, it was just seconds later that Auston Matthews would tie the game once again on the power play to make it a 3-3 contest.
The final goal of the period saw the Hurricanes back out to the lead once again over three minutes later as great breakout play from Dmitry Orlov and Juha Jääskä found Jackson Blake who would beat Woll five-hole to see the home team up 4-3 and in the lead for the last time. While Blake did score his ninth goal of the season, that was Jääskä’s first NHL point.
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The third period was all Hurricanes as Staal would complete the hat trick as he notched his third goal of the game, this time 20 seconds into the final frame. He tipped in a Brent Burns shot to cap off a great night with him scoring half of the team’s goals. He started the second period by scoring 35 seconds in and then the third period 20 seconds. It ended up being his fifth career hat trick. Just have a night Jordan Staal.
Seth Jarvis would ice the game with 3:37 left with an empty net goal. His 12th of the season would make the game 6-3 and that is how it ended. The Hurricanes went from 2-0 down to winning 6-3 and their captain scored three of the six. The win sees the Hurricanes move to 25-15-2 on the season.
No Rest in the NHL
The Hurricanes are back at it once again as they take on the Vancouver Canucks (18-12-10) on Friday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Eastern for the second half of the back-to-back. Regarding the Maple Leafs (27-14-2), they also face the Canucks, but that will be on Saturday, Jan. 11 back home in Toronto. That game is set for a 7 p.m. puck drop as well.
