RALEIGH — The Hurricanes built an early two-goal lead and held on for a 2-1 win over the visiting Maple Leafs on Sunday at PNC Arena.
Brady Skjei and Sebastian Aho scored for Carolina, and Frederik Andersen stayed perfect since returning from a blood-clotting issue.
Three observations
1. Carolina’s penalty kill was the difference in the game. On a night when the Hurricanes were again on the PK more than their opponent — despite outshooting the Leafs 43-33 and holding a 54.29%-45.71% edge in 5-on-5 shot attempts, Toronto had four power plays to the Hurricanes’ three — Carolina allowed just six shots on goal in eight minutes shorthanded.
That included more than a minute of 6-on-4 time after the Leafs pulled their goalie for an extra attacker after Brent Burns was called for his second phantom penalty of the night.
“Tonight we were against, obviously, a great power play,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “and that was probably the difference in the game, being able to kill those. So good job by our guys. … You certainly don’t want to be in the box against these guys, but we managed to escape.”
2. The Hurricanes needed just 66 seconds to take the lead and added a flukey bounce to go up 2-0 in the first period.
A turnover by Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe behind the Maple Leafs led to a bouncing puck in front of Joseph Woll (41 saves), and it ended up on Skjei’s stick at the point. His blast beat Woll to give Carolina a 1-0 lead at 1:06 of the opening period.
“I just try to get it through, get it on net and get it through the traffic, and that one luckily sneaked in,” Skjei said of his 12th goal of the season. “That was not exactly where I was trying to shoot, but we’ll take it.”
Then with Carolina on the power play with just over six minutes left in the opening frame, Aho’s cross-ice pass intended for Andrei Svechnikov instead hit McCabe’s skate and deflected in for Aho’s 31st goal of the season.
“That’s how it works sometimes,” Aho said. “Yeah, I’ll take it.”
3. The win pulled Carolina within one point of the Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division, though New York has 11 games remaining to the Hurricanes’ 10.
Carolina is tied with Boston for third in the conference with 97 points in 72 games — something that seemed impossible when Boston was 19-5-4 (42 points) through 28 games while the Hurricanes started off 15-12-1 (31 points).
Six teams are within a point of each other in the Presidents’ Trophy race. The Rangers and Canucks both have 98 points with 11 games remaining, while Florida and Colorado are one back with 11 left, and Carolina and Boston are also a point but with 10 games remaining. The Stars, with 11 games left, have 95 points.
Number to know
22:57 — Time on ice for Seth Jarvis on Sunday, the second most of his career. Eight days earlier, Jarvis played 22:42 in an overtime win in Toronto. His career high is 23:23 against the Kings on Jan. 15 this season. Jarvis’ six-game goal streak did come to an end — not that he didn’t have his chances. He had two redirections at the side of the goal that went wide, and then his clear off the boards with Woll on the bench for an extra attacker in the final minutes crawled toward the Toronto net and hit the post.
Plus
Frederik Andersen, Hurricanes goalie — Andersen’s first shutout since returning from the injured list, on March 14 against Florida, was sweet. Posting a win against his former team was probably even sweeter.
“This is obviously one of the games you get up for and, I guess, measure yourself a little bit,” Andersen said.
Andersen improved to 6-0-0 since getting back on the ice, and he’s allowed just eight goals in those games with a .951 save percentage. He made 32 saves Sunday.
“I’m not surprised,” Brind’Amour said when asked if he expected Andersen to play so well after a long layoff. “I didn’t know what to expect. We know he’s a great goalie. When you’ve been out that long, I don’t care what position you play, there’s got to be some rust factor. But it certainly doesn’t look like there’s any of that.”
Minus
Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes forward — Svechnikov remains in a funk. Despite tying for the team lead with five shots, he still appears to be trying to do too much. That was certainly true on his two penalties, one for boarding when he failed to let up as he closed in on McCabe and the other when he tripped Toronto forward David Kampf in the offensive zone while forechecking.
It wasn’t all bad for Svechnikov. He was at the goal whacking at a loose puck that led to Toronto defenseman Joel Edmundson covering the puck and giving Carolina a penalty shot Jake Guentzel didn’t covert. He also had the neutral zone takeaway that initiated the sequence when Pontus Holmberg was called for slashing in the first period, leading to the power play goal that proved to be the game-winner.
“It’s never a lack of effort with that guy,” Brind’Amour said. “He gives you everything he has. We’ve talked about it — he’s gotta be smarter. It’s that simple. You can’t take O-zone penalties. That’s death. So he’s got to figure it out.”
They said it
“You appreciate being back doing what you love, and yeah, it feels good.”
— Frederik Andersen, Hurricanes goaltender
