Hurricanes’ Winning Streak Snapped in 6-3 Loss to Panthers

All good things must come to an end. The Carolina Hurricanes saw their nine-game home winning streak snapped on Friday afternoon (Nov. 29) in a 6-3 loss to the Florida Panthers. Despite clawing back from 3-1 down in the second period to make it 3-3 before the second intermission, they did not have enough against the defending Stanley Cup champions in front of their home crowd who gave them their 79th consecutive sellout. What went wrong to see them lose 6-3 after tying it 3-3?

Game Recap

Before we get to the third period, let’s rewind to the first period where, like the final frame, the Panthers scored three goals. Jesper Boqvist shot a backhander between the circles in the Hurricanes’ zone and got by Spencer Martin who had a little traffic in front of him. However, it was just enough of a floater that he had a chance to save it. Nonetheless, Carolina was down early once again for the third straight game.

The NHL’s leading goalscorer did not want to feel left out as Sam Reinhart scored his 18th of the season after the Hurricanes couldn’t control the puck in the neutral zone. After taking a great pass from Aleksander Barkov, Reinhart just went in on the net and shot it by Martin to give the Panthers the 2-1 lead. Just over two minutes later, Carter Verhaeghe got in on the action to make it a 3-1 game, a familiar sight for the home side as they were down two goals going into the first intermission. While not all the goals were Martin’s fault, the overall team play could have been better.

The lone bright spot in the first period was Seth Jarvis who has now scored in three straight games since coming back from injury. Furthermore, it was once again on the power play, which at the time tied the game 1-1 and got Lenovo Center rocking. After that, it was all Panthers going into the second period.

Despite the first period being all Florida, it was the Hurricanes who controlled the second period. Once again coming back from a multi-goal deficit, they managed to claw back to tie the game 3-3. The first of the two goals came from a heavy traffic shot by Sean Walker who ripped a laser of a wrister as it went top shelf over the shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky. It was his 100th NHL career point and it came at a crucial time. Later on in the period with less than three minutes left, they say putting pucks on the net leads to good things, and well, good things happened. Jalen Chatfield shot the puck towards the net and Eric Robinson was able to get a piece of it to deflect it into the goal to make it a 3-3 game going into the second intermission. It felt like we were going to witness another classic Hurricanes comeback for the third time in the week.

However, the Panthers had another idea.

The Panthers Clawed Out the W

Just like the first period, the Panthers score three goals to earn the win over the Hurricanes. A.J. Greer caught the Hurricanes in a mid-change to find a perfect spot to shoot the puck and beat Martin over the shoulder to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead. Their second goal of the period came on a 2-on-1 opportunity while on the penalty kill with only Brent Burns in the way. Luostarinen got the shot off that bounce off of Martin’s pads and right to a wide-open Anton Lundell who shot it home to give the visitors a 5-3 lead on a shorthanded marker.

Their final goal of the period, and the game, was an empty net goal with six seconds left in the game, which was scored by Sam Bennett. They claimed the win and look to complete the back-to-back sweep tomorrow at home in Sunrise, FL.

Regarding the Hurricanes, their nine-game home streak was snapped, but Sebastian Aho was able to get a point to extend his streak to four games. Martin Necas’ four-game streak was snapped, however. The other bright spot was Walker getting point number 100 for his career and Jarvis with his red-hot goal streak (3) since coming back from injury.

Run it Back Tomorrow Afternoon

The teams face each other tomorrow afternoon in Sunrise, FL for a 4 p.m. puck drop. Who will win the game between the 16-6-1 Hurricanes or the 14-9-1 Panthers?