The Logan Stankoven-Jackson Blake-Taylor Hall line continued their dominance of the series, both Power Plays looked more like they were stuck in black out conditions, and the Carolina Hurricanes showed their playoff experience by entering a hostile road arena and silencing it by defeating the Ottawa Senators 2-1. Carolina now holds a 3-0 lead in the best of seven series.
As expected, the Ottawa crowd was loud, trying to lift the Senators in the first few minutes and establish a tone as their home team entered the series down 0-2. The Senators would go on to follow up on this tone and out hit the Hurricanes 17-9 in the period, but it was clear that the Hurricanes expected the rush and weathered it well. Then just a scant five minutes in, the center-of-the-sun hot Logan Stankoven opened the scoring for the third straight game.
The play showed why the Canes traded for Taylor Hall last season. A year plus later, he’s found his spot and two line mates who seem to just feed off him, and vice-versa. Hall entered the zone alone, and had the space to throw a shot on Linus Ullmark. Ullmark made the shot, but the rebound bounced back to Hall who sped by, went behind the net, and fed a beautiful pass to an open Stankoven who immediately fired to get it past the goalie for a 1-0 lead.
The period had a chance to really get away from Ottawa after that, as the Senators would three penalties—two in the offensive zone. The Canes power play, however, fizzled as it went 0-3 and really didn’t have that many great shots on Ullmark. Frederick Andersen—starting his third game in a row—was sharp and while the shots were nearly even at 10-8, the Canes entered the locker room with the one goal lead.
In the second, the Hurricanes evened out the penalty disparity and then some. Carolina would have to kill off four penalties in the first eleven minutes, including 1:28 of a five-on-three. It was an alarming break down of discipline with checks to the head, too many men, a trip, and a hook that were all so clear that the officials had no choice but to call them. Yet, the penalty kill rose up to knock off each one including the 5-on-3. By the end of the final segment of the fourth penalty the home fans were quiet.
It felt then that the next goal would be scored by the Canes, but much like the first period, the team that had all the Power Plays saw their only goal come at even strength. The puck entered at the blue line and Jalen Chatfield was able to get it across, but against the wall Jordan Martinook would bat the puck back in. Even though some of the Senators were in the zone, with Martinook being the one to push the puck in the play was onside and created a two-on-one with Nick Cousins and Drake Batherson. Cousins skated in and got the puck past a diving Jaccob Slavin over to Batherson, and Batherson beat Andersen to knot the score at one.
The Hurricanes wouldn’t be deterred and not even 90 seconds later Carolina retook the lead thanks not only to the Stankoven line but one of the sickest plays you’ll see from another summer acquisition, K’Andre Miller. On zone entry, Taylor Hall was able to draw multiple Senators over to him against the wall, Miller skated on the other side toward the goal and Hall was able to feed it to him. Miller played it like he was going to put a shot on Ullmark and at the last second threaded a pass over to an open Jackson Bake, who banged it in to give Carolina a 2-1 lead.
Carolina would end the period having to kill another penalty as Jordan Martinook committed another clear infraction, but they would also end the period outshooting Ottawa 10-7 despite giving up five penalties and 1:22 of a 5-on-3.
The Power Play struggles for both teams continued in third as the Senators weren’t able to convert on the end of their advantage, and then Carolina had perhaps their worst power play later in the period when Brady Tkachuk was called for a major penalty that was reduced to a minor on review. All it managed to accomplish was melting two minutes off the clock, but by that point in the third the Senators were completely worn down. What didn’t help was the injury to yet another key defenseman. Jake Sanderson took the Hall check to the head, and then later on took a puck off his hand. After that incident, he never returned.
For perhaps the first time all series, neither goalie let in a goal that they would look at and say they should have stopped. Stankoven’s and Jackson’s goals came off great passes from players that are known shooters and Ullmark had to take them seriously. Anderson’s lone goal he allowed was on a two on one rush that would have required a miraculous save. Both goalies kept their teams in it with Ullmark making 25 saves, and Andersen making 21.
The key for the Canes’ win could be spotted in the faceoff dot. After being dominated the first two games, Brind’Amour apparently worked the team hard over the last couple of days because for the first time they won the faceoff matchup 54.1% to 45.9%. They were led by Sebastian Aho going 63.6% while Jordan Staal went 53.1%.
After the extended break there won’t be much of a rest before the next game. Ottawa will look to avoid the sweep on Saturday at 3 PM. There’s no doubt it’ll still be Ullmark in net for the Senators but once again it appears Ottawa will have to shuffle their pairings. The question will be between Carolina’s pipes as Andersen still hasn’t done anything to deserve being pulled but the short turnaround may see Rod Brind’Amour get Brandon Bussi a game to give the Dane some extra time. We may not know for sure until Saturday.
