RALEIGH — Brett Pesce scored twice, including the overtime winner, to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 win over the visiting Penguins on Saturday and extend their point streak to eight games.
Jordan Martinook also scored for Carolina, while Pittsburgh got goals from Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. Antti Raanta made 38 saves to improve to 3-0-1 since his two-game assignment to the AHL.
Three observations
1. Pesce picked a good time to have just the second two-goal game of his career.
He got a little help on both goals.
On the first goal of the game, Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho won a board battle, with the latter emerging with the puck. Aho passed to Pesce in the right circle, and the Carolina defenseman’s shot his the glove of Penguins center Lars Eller and went in.
On his game-winner in overtime, the help came from a mental mistake.
Teuvo Teravainen took the puck out of the offensive zone to reset Carolina’s attack at 3-on-3, and Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby decided to go off for a line change just as Teravainen curled to reenter the zone.
That gave the Hurricanes a quick 3-on-2, and Pesce jumped into the play and shot the game-winner as Evgeny Malkin — the player who came on the ice for Crosby — could only watch while trailing a few strides behind.
Pesce’s only other two-goal game came a year and a day ago, when he scored twice in a 6-2 win at Columbus on Jan. 12, 2023. Pesce also had five shots on goal, and he has at least one point in 10 of the 13 regular season games he’s had at least that many shots.
“Good things happen when you put the puck on net, and thankfully I got a few bounces tonight,” Pesce said.
2. The win, coupled with the Rangers’ regulation loss to the Capitals, put the Hurricanes just one point behind New York, which has one game in hand, for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
While Carolina has gone 7-0-1 in its last eight, the Rangers are on a four-game winless streak and 2-5-1 in their last eight.
Not that the Hurricanes are paying attention to that.
“There’s just so much season to go yet, we’ve got to just focus on us,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ll let everyone else worry about everyone else.”
3. The Hurricanes’ streak of scoring a power play goal ended at eight games after Carolina went 0 for 3 on Saturday. It came close — Seth Jarvis hit the iron at the midway point of regulation — but failed to get on the board for the first time since Dec. 21 against, yep, the Penguins.
The penalty kill came up big again, limiting Pittsburgh to just two shots on goal on four opportunities. The Hurricanes now rank eighth on the penalty kill (83.2%) and third on the power play (28.2%).
Number to know
38 — Saves for Raanta, the most he’s had in a game during his three seasons with the Hurricanes. Raanta twice made 37 stops — both in March 2022 — with Carolina, and Saturday was the 10th time since joining the team that he’s made 30 or more saves in a regular season game.
Plus
Antti Raanta, Hurricanes goalie — Carolina’s goalie went save for save with Tristan Jarry, who finished with 32 stops, and his save on Sidney Crosby in the third period, with the score still 2-0 Carolina, is a save of the year candidate.
Antti Raanta. Jaw-dropper. 😱
On Sidney Crosby, no less! pic.twitter.com/xl0fotCBQt
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 14, 2024
“Crosby’s been scoring against us a lot, so obviously it’s great to make that save,” Raanta said.
The Hurricanes needed the veteran to step up big in the first game since Pyotr Kochetkov was put in the concussion protocol, and he did just that.
Minus
The Linesmen — I counted at least four questionable calls on potential icings, including a couple early in the game that led to offensive zone possession. During an era that includes frame-by-frame breakdowns of offside calls, it’s frustrating to see refs getting icing calls wrong frequently.
They said it
“Just lay down and pray. Yeah, that’s about it”
— Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce on his shot-blocking philosophy
