While the final score might not indicate it, Brandon Bussi played a big role in the Carolina Hurricanes' 5-1 win Tuesday night, with the goaltender standing on his head in his NHL debut.

The 27-year-old netminder stopped 16 shots in the win, including a few grade-A chances, and bought his team time to find their groove as the Canes didn't open up the floodgates until halfway through the contest, and before that, it was still anyone's game. 

Bussi stopped 1.03 goals above expected per naturalstattrick.com and looked very comfortable despite never having touched the ice in an NHL game before.

It wasn't the cleanest start for Carolina, who also took six penalties on the night, but once Bussi allowed them to settle in, things looked a lot more like we're used to seeing.

The Hurricanes burst open the floodgates with four goals in the final 26 minutes of game time, and also didn't allow a single shot on goal in the final frame.

The Hurricanes were just absolutely dominant after a slow start and they can thank Bussi for buying them the time to get to their game.

Sean Walker got the game's first goal, but it was all Sebastian Aho on the setup. The Finnish center was a man-possessed on the shift, holding off former Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov before feeding Walker at the blueline.

San Jose would respond early in the second, as a defensive breakdown gave William Eklund a partial breakaway, but toward the end of the period, the floodgates finally burst for Carolina.

William Carrier scored for the first time since Dec. 22, 2024 as he crashed the net to finish off an Alexander Nikishin chance that hit the post and then Mike Reilly sent one deep to spring Eric Robinson on a breakaway.

In the third period, Shayne Gostisbehere had a wide-open net to deposit the puck in after finishing off a 3-on-1 with Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall.

Then that line struck again as Jackson Blake let one go from distance that went post and in to beat Alex Nedeljkovic.

The Hurricanes remain as one of only two undefeated teams left in the NHL (Dallas being the other) and will be back in action Thursday night in Anaheim.

Notes

• Taylor Hall got the bump up to the second line in place of Andrei Svechnikov and it directly led to a pair of goals for that line. Hall now has points in every game so far this year.
• Speaking of points in every game, Alexander Nikishin continues to impress. The kid has such good natural instincts and that Carrier goal was just an inch away from being his first. Also... Boom.

• It was the eighth time in franchise history that the Canes had held a team without a shot on goal for an entire period per team reporter Walt Ruff.
• Four different players scored their first goal of the season and 13 players in total found their way onto tonight's scoresheet. Logan Stankoven was the only player with a multi-point night (2a).

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