RALEIGH, N.C. — Brady Tkachuk spent most of the night in Spencer Martin’s crease, bumping, taking up space, and giving the Hurricanes goalie a few post-whistle whacks to try and get him off his game.
It didn’t work.
Martin, forced into duty with both Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov injured, shrugged off Tkachuk and the visiting Ottawa Senators, making 24 saves for his first career NHL shutout in Carolina’s 4-0 win Saturday at Lenovo Center.
“It’s pretty cool,” Martin said. “I mean, I’m more focused on winning games. I don’t go in there looking for a shutout, but that’s fun.”
The Hurricanes used back-to-back power plays goals to turn a one-goal lead into a 3-0 stranglehold.
Carolina led 1-0 on a first-period bad-angle goal by Jordan Martinook, but the second period was mostly uneventful until the Hurricanes got 8 seconds of 5-on-3 time due to an Ottawa delay of game penalty and quickly converted.
Sebastian Aho scored on a one-timer past Senators goalie Anton Forsberg (24 saves) just before the first penalty expired to give Carolina a 2-0 lead with 42 seconds left in the middle frame.
Martin Necas set up the goal to extend his point streak to 12 games, and it snapped Aho’s seven-game goal drought.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour credited his team’s ability to quickly get a chance on the abbreviated 5-on-3.
“I think the key part of that was we said we’ve got eight seconds — we’ve got to get something quick, and they were able to do that,” he said.
That meant Carolina got to keep its one-man advantage from the delay of game penalty, and the Hurricanes extended the lead to three.
Shayne Gostisbehere’s point shot got to the paint where Andrei Svechnikov had a rebound chance. The puck bounced loose and Jackson Blake pounced, punching in the rebound for the rookie’s fifth goal of the season just 43 seconds into the third.
“There’s like three guys and Svech there,” Blake said. “So he’s batting it, I was just like, ‘All right, well, maybe he’s gonna do something cool here.’ But then it just popped out for me right there. … I‘ll take that one.”
William Carrier added an empty-net goal with 4:54 remaining, and all that was left was getting Martin his shutout.
“Of course, yeah, it was there,” Martin said of thinking of completing the shutout as the clock wound down. “But they’re a good team. … I’m more so just making sure we win.”
Martin punctuated the win with a glove save with 33 seconds left on Tkachuk, followed by flipping the puck in the direction of the Ottawa captain while glaring in his direction.
“I think I probably went too far there, but I was also riding off my emotions to play well tonight,” Martin said with a smile. “So, you know, it is what it is.”
Martin’s performance brought a moment of stability to an injury-filled start for the Hurricanes’ goalies this season.
“I don’t look at it as a tough situation because tougher would be me not being where I want to be,” Martin said. “I really feel like it’s meant to be that I get the chance, and so in that case, I’m enjoying it and going to try to do my best with it.”
Notes: Jalen Chatfield played in his 200th career game. … Jesperi Kotkaniemi won 9 of 10 faceoffs. … Martinook finished with a goal and an assist and has nine points in his last six games
