RALEIGH — The Hurricanes won’t play again at Lenovo Center for 23 days, but they gave their fans something to remember during the Olympic break.
Nikolaj Ehlers sprung Jordan Staal for a breakaway with just over five minutes left in regulation, and the Carolina captain scored his 14th goal of the season to lift the Hurricanes to a 4-3 win over the Senators on Tuesday.
“(Ehlers) made, obviously, a great pass, a quick up,” Staal said. “I saw them changing and got a good angle, and I closed my eyes and she went in.”
It was one of just two shots on goal in the final 16:25 of the game, and the other tied the score at 4:57 of the third.
With Hurricanes center Mark Jankowski in the box for high sticking, Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson one-timed a pass from Drake Batherson past a screen and in to make it 3-3.
The Hurricanes responded nearly 10 minutes later by pouncing on the one big even-strength opportunity of the third as Ehlers caught the Senators making a poor line change and got the puck up to Staal for the game-winner. The goal gave Staal his fourth goal in the last six games.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
That’s because on top of being Carolina’s shutdown forward, Staal has emerged as a catalyst on the power play. Since Brind’Amour started using Staal as a faceoff specialist on the man advantage on Dec. 4, the Hurricanes are converting at a 28% clip, third best in the NHL. The team is now up to 13th in the NHL for the season at 22%.
“Big shot right now,” said Sebastian Aho, who scored for the third straight game and had three points.
Staal’s faceoff win on the power play in the second period led to the first of Seth Jarvis’ two goals to give Carolina its first lead.
It took just six seconds. Staal won the faceoff, and Aho worked the puck back to Jarvis at the left point.
Jarvis returned the puck to Aho, who then gave it to Andrei Svechnikov at the bottom of the left circle. Jarvis slashed to the slot and quickly snapped a Svechnikov pass into the net for a 2-1 lead at 12:39 of the middle frame.
“He’s been incredible,” Jarvis said of Staal’s contributions on the power play. “That’s a big reason, I think, why our power play’s doing as well as it has been. Starting with the puck and letting us run our plays and give us a chance to kind of score right away, which again we did tonight.”
Aho, who scored in the first period to tie the game, got his third point of the night just over three minutes later by sending Jarvis flying down the wing. After Brandon Bussi (22 saves) made a key stop, Aho got the rebound and passed to Jarvis in stride just outside the Ottawa blue line. Jarvis held off Sanderson and flipped a shot past James Reimer (14 saves) for his 25th goal of the season at 15:41 to extend the lead to 3-1.
“Maybe I look fat out there or something — they think I’m a little slow,” Jarvis joked of defenders underestimating his skating. “But the speed’s still in there somewhere. It’s nice when you get those opportunities when you kind of catch them flat-footed and kind of throw it back a little bit.”
Ottawa cut the lead back to one 40 seconds later when, with Carolina forward William Carrier in the box for interference, Sanderson set up Tim Stutzle for a wide-angle one-timer for his 27th goal of the year.
Another ill-advised penalty, the Jankowski high stick, allowed the Senators to tie the game on the power play just under five minutes into the third period.
But there was only one more shot on goal in the game, and it came off Staal’s stick and into the net.
“It was a tight game, and it just takes one little mistake, which we capitalize on,” Staal said of his winning goal. “It was nice to get the win.”
It extended the Hurricanes’ point streak to nine games with one matchup remaining, Thursday at Madison Square Garden, before the long Olympic break.
“I think we’re finding ways to win, which is good,” Brind’Amour said. “You’re not always going to dominate the game or whatever; you have to find ways. And tonight, that’s kind of what happened.”
Notes: The Hurricanes outhit Ottawa 27-20. … Stutzle and Sanderson — headed to the Olympics for Germany and Canada, respectively — were both minus 3 for the Senators. … Bussi improved to 22-3-1. … Carolina allowed multiple power play goals for the fourth time this season. … After winning a season-low 32.1% of the faceoffs in the earlier meeting against Ottawa, the Hurricanes won half of the 66 draws Tuesday. … Eric Robinson (upper-body injury) and Mike Reilly (healthy) did not play for Carolina.
