RALEIGH — The Hurricanes overcame adversity to come away with a 4-2 win over the Penguins on Saturday at PNC Arena. Seth Jarvis had two goals and an assist, Brent Burns and Sebastian Aho each had a goal and an assist, and both Jaccob Slavin and Teuvo Teravainen had two assists. Sidney Crosby had both of the Penguins’ goals
Antti Raanta had 26 saves to outduel Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry (30 saves) and earn the win.
Three observations
1. After both coach Rod Brind’Amour and captain Jordan Staal questioned the team’s consistency and buy-in to play the Hurricanes’ style, Carolina seemed fully engaged Saturday.
It also would have been easy for the Hurricanes to crumble when things didn’t go their way. They trailed 1-0 after a first period that saw Carolina get most of the chances. After going ahead 2-1 on Burns’ goal, the Hurricanes got an insurance goal with Andrei Svechnikov scored.
But the goal was taken off the board for offside, and a minute later Crosby got his second goal of the game to tie it.
A fragile team might’ve rolled over, but Carolina got back to work, with Jarvis scoring the game-winner just over two minutes later.
“There was a ton of adversity,” Jarvis said. “Obviously the called-off goal there was a little close, so it was nice to see us battle back. I think the biggest thing is we’re positive. We never really lost hope. And that’s something that’s changed in the last little while is the positivity on the bench has been really good.”
2. Brind’Amour shuffled his defense pairings after the team committed seven turnovers in the first period. The tandem of Dmitry Orlov and Tony DeAngelo looked particularly shaky in the first 20 minutes — even on the power play, DeAngelo looked shell-shocked with the puck on his stick.
So the coach put Orlov with Brett Pesce and DeAngelo alongside Brady Skjei, still going back to the Skjei-Pesce pairing in critical situations.
“I mean, we gotta keep trying, right?” Brind’Amour said after the game. “We’ve got good ones back there. … it’s just the chemistry and the fit. So that might be a little bit of work in progress, but we’ll keep at it.”
3. Aho’s goal was a thing of beauty, which everyone has come to expect when he is paired with Teravainen.
That's quite the connection between Jarvis, Teravainen, and 20.
The fifth goal of the season for 1C. pic.twitter.com/87sfH0wzr8
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 19, 2023
Shockingly, it was Teravainen’s first 5-on-5 assist of the season — his other assist came on the power play — a stat that even had Brind’Amour flabbergasted.
“How does that happen?” Brind’Amour said. “And then you see tonight, he made a heck of a pass on that goal.”
His teammates took the opportunity to poke some fun at Teravainen, who now has nine goals and two assists on the season.
“Finally,” Aho joked. “I’ve been open the whole season. Finally, he passed a couple.”
Jarvis added: “He’s too selfish with the puck. He’s gotta move it more.”
Teravainen got a second assist on Jarvis’ empty-netter, bringing his season total to three.
Number to know
6 — Blocked shots for Skjei, his most in a game since he had a career-high seven against Nashville on March 9, 2021. The biggest came in the second period on Reilly Smith when Skjei got his stick on a shot with the net wide open for the Penguins forward.
Plus
Seth Jarvis, Hurricanes right wing — If you wanted to show someone what kind of player Seth Jarvis is, showing them Saturday’s game would do a pretty good job of it. Jarvis had three points, assisting on the beautiful Aho goal, crashing the net and redirecting a puck in for the game-winner, and sealing the game with an empty netter.
There was more than that. He won two defensive zone faceoffs on the penalty kill, and his back check to negate a scoring chance for Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel — which ended with Jarvis crashing into the boards — was perhaps the play of the game.
“(Jesperi Kotkaneimi) calls me a cannonball, and I really kind of went to the boards like one there,” Jarvis said.
Minus
Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes forward — When Svechnikov scored to put the Hurricanes ahead 3-1, you could feel the weight of the world lift off his shoulders. He last scored March 9 and had started his season, after being cleared for play following knee surgery, without a goal in nine games.
Unfortunately for Svechnikov, the goal was taken off the board when it was determined Martin Necas, who made the pass that set up Svechnikov for his short-wide laser, was offside. No. 37 will have to wait until at least Game 10 to get his first of the season. He did pick up an assist on Burns’ goal.
They said it
“It felt really good. I don’t know if you could tell from my celebration. I was pretty excited.”
— Seth Jarvis on his game-winning goal
