RALEIGH — Season after season following each loss, Jordan Staal has waited in his locker room stall to answer for his team’s performance.
On Thursday, he got to sit there with a smile on his face.
Staal scored his fourth career hat trick, getting a goal in all three periods as the Hurricanes beat the visiting Maple Leafs 6-3 Thursday at Lenovo Center.
“Getting rewarded with cookies is always a good thing,” Staal said. “But you guys see my game. It hasn’t changed. It’s being hard to play against, finding ways to win games in a more simpler fashion. But when I get rewarded with them, it always feels good.”
Staal and his line with Jordan Martinook and Andrei Svechnikov also shut down Leafs stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, who were both minus 6.
“He takes such pride in playing against the top guys, too,” Martinook said. “So showing up and we’re gonna get Matthews, he loves that. And then for him to go out and put up three, that’s awesome.”
Staal scored twice in the opening minute of two periods, getting his 21st career shorthanded goal 35 seconds into the second period and redirecting a Brent Burns shot 20 seconds into the third to complete the hat trick.
“I’ll keep passing to him if he keeps scoring,” said Martinook, who assisted on all three goals.
Carolina’s win, however, wasn’t a one-man show. The Hurricanes dug themselves a two-goal hole thanks to a handful of early miscues.
Just 1:59 into the game, Hurricanes center Jesperi Kotkaniemi missed a centering pass by Toronto’s Max Domi, and Nick Robertson snapped the puck past Pyotr Kochetkov (30 saves) to make it 1-0.
Then 5½ minutes later, Carolina defenseman Jalen Chatfield whiffed on a point shot, and William Nylander skated in and converted a breakaway to give the Leafs an early 2-0 lead.
“It was beer league hockey, beer league plays, to be quite honest with you,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
It looked like the rout was on, but Carolina needed just 17 seconds to tie the game.
First, forward Martin Necas created space on a zone entry and worked the puck back to Ty Smith at the point. Smith’s shot resulted in a loose puck in front, and Eric Robinson banged in the rebound for his 10th goal of the year and a 2-1 game at 13:58 of the first.
On the next shift, Svechnikov retrieved the puck behind the Toronto goal line, made a quick move to create space and set up Staal to tie the score at 14:15.
“I really enjoy playing with him,” Staal said of Svechnikov. “He’s physically strong. He can do all the things, and we’ve just got to keep him doing that.”
The Maple Leafs had an early power play in the second period, but Carolina scored first on it.
On a 2-on-1, Martinook passed the puck through the legs of Toronto’s Marner to Staal, who scored his second of the game 35 seconds into the middle frame — his first multigoal goal game since April 16, 2022.
The Leafs tied the game on the same power play when Matthews cleaned up a rebound at 1:11, his 14th goal of the year.
But Carolina’s depth put them back ahead for good when Juha Jaaska picked up his first career NHL point by setting up Jackson Blake to the left of Joseph Woll (28 saves). The rookie released a quick shot along the ice that beat Woll five-hole for his ninth goal of the year at 4:58 of the second.
Jaaska has had a whirlwind first week in the NHL, making his NHL debut last Thursday, returning to the AHL and playing for Chicago on Saturday — where he suffered a high stick that has him sporting two black eyes — and then getting recalled again and playing Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday with Carolina.
“Last week was heavy,” he said. “First NHL game, then back to the jungle. Second period, get the worst hard, high stick that I ever got. And then back to here. But this is pretty fun, for sure. You’re so excited to play in the National, so it doesn’t matter how I’m hurting.”
But the story of the night was Staal, who will, in three nights, see brother Eric’s No. 12 be retired by the Hurricanes. On this night, he was the star instead of fading into the background after a win.
“He does a lot for us; it just goes unnoticed,” Brind’Amour said. “And tonight, it was nice to see that he got rewarded. … He does so many things for us, and it means a lot more than people give him credit for.”
Notes: Matthews and Marner are the first Maple Leafs players to finish minus 6 since Mike Bullard and Daniel Marois did it on Dec. 26, 1991, in a 12-1 loss to Pittsburgh. … Matthews became the 16th player in NHL history to score a goal and also be at least minus 6. The last was Jonathan Marchessault on March 10, 2017, with Florida. Dino Ciccarelli is the only player to score two goals while being minus 6, doing it on Dec. 6, 1987, in a 10-4 North Stars loss to Edmonton. … Jaccob Slavin was plus 4 for the fifth time, matching his career best. … Martinook’s three assists were a career high.
