RALEIGH — Seth Jarvis scored in overtime to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 win over the visiting Flyers on Thursday at PNC Arena. Jordan Martinook and Jalen Chatfield also scored, and Frederik Andersen made 30 saves for Carolina, which won its fifth straight game.
Three observations
1. The Hurricanes definitely weren’t at their best Thursday, but that didn’t keep them from banking two more points and keeping pace with the Rangers, who beat the Bruins and maintain a two-point lead over Carolina for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
It was Jarvis who sealed the win, settling a bouncing puck after a Brent Burns pass on an overtime 2-on-1 to beat Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson (30 saves) and extend his goal streak to five games.
“He looked at me and I kind of had a feeling it was coming,” Jarvis said of Burns. “He slowed up a little bit — I’m just happy we connected.”
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour wasn’t thrilled with his team’s play, outside of Andersen, who improved to 5-0-0 since coming off the injured list.
“I think we got away with one,” Brind’Amour said. “Our goalie played great. We were pretty bad, to be quite honest. They were good. They were desperate. We knew what we were getting into, we just could never get going. Credit to them but more, I think, we were looking a little for an easier night than we needed to, and consequently it looked like that.”
2. For everyone who is hoping for a first-round playoff matchup against the overachieving Flyers, let Thursday’s game be a lesson.
Philadelphia isn’t in a playoff spot because they’re on an unreal shooting percentage bender or are getting out-of-this-world goaltending or special teams. The Flyers are competitive because they have an identity and stick to it. It also helps that they have some high-end talent in Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett.
“You gotta give them some credit, they’re playing desperate hockey too,” said Martinook, who opened the scoring with his 13th goal of the season at 3:56 of the second period. “So they’re gonna come at us, and just learn from it, try and manage the puck a little better and move on to tomorrow.”
It will serve as good preparation for the postseason when teams play a rigid, structured style.
“That’s fun hockey to play, not playing a team that’s cheating the game,” said Chatfield, who scored just past the midway point of regulation to give Carolina a 2-1 lead. “I thought they played hard, they were blocking shots. And we knew that before the game started they were going to play that type of game. It’s a fun game to make sure we’re ready and playing our game.”
3. The Hurricanes were without three forwards as Jack Drury, Teuvo Teravainen and Jesper Fast all missed the game. Carolina dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Tony DeAngelo playing for the first time since Feb. 25.
Drury missed his seventh straight game with a lower-body injury, while Teravainen missed his fourth straight. Fast had played in all three games of the Hurricanes’ road trip but missed Thursday’s game with an injury.
Teravainen is often a key part of the Hurricanes’ penalty kill, but Carolina still went 3 for 3 on the kill — including 1:19 of 5-on-3 time in the first period — and allowed just four shots on goal.
“Confidence with that is obviously big,” Martinook said of the penalty kill, “and I think everybody is pretty happy with the way it’s been going. Our main objective is we want to outwork the other team’s power play. … That’s been really good, and we need to keep that going.”
Number to know
8 — Goals this season for Chatfield, who got his eighth of the season in the second period. It’s the most goals of any defenseman in the NHL with fewer than 1,250 minutes — Chatfield has done it in 909:39, and the next closest is Florida defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has nine goals this season in 1283:46.
Plus
Jalen Chatfield, Hurricanes defenseman — The undrafted defenseman continues to thrive with the Hurricanes. Chatfield added to his career high in goals, and he and Dmitry Orlov have given Carolina three great pairings. Chatfield has three goals and eight points in 10 games in March.
Minus
Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes forward — Svechnikov looked off all night, leading to Brind’Amour swapping him with Stefan Noesen and putting him with Jordan Staal and Martinook for the second half of the game. He then took a retaliatory penalty after the Flyers got overzealous around Andersen, giving Philadelphia a power play when the game was 2-1 in the third period.
“You gotta have time and place,” Brind’Amour said. “So it’s not the time for that. You gotta be careful because the refs are looking for that, and you don’t what they’re gonna call. So you just don’t want to put it in their hands, and that’s what we did there.”
They said it
“Play good neutral zone, play good D zone then you’re gonna (get) offensive zone chances.”
— Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook
