The Carolina Hurricanes won in back-to-back nights in front of their moms as they pulled out a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils Thursday night at PNC Arena.
The Canes opened the game strong and scored the first three goals, which proved to be enough to win.
Despite tailing off towards the end, Carolina held strong and didn't break.
Here are my three takeaways from the win:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33XbvacMZVY[/embed]
The Captain
For the first time since Dec. 19, Jordan Staal scored a goal.
It had been 14 games since the captain managed to find the back of the net, but he sure found a good time to get one as his tally proved to be the game-winner.
It's an area of the game that he's always sort of lacked in, but it's becoming more apparent that Staal is slowing down even more offensively, so every goal he gets is a nice bonus.
"I know I'm not counted on for scoring goals around here, but it's always nice to have it go in the back of the net and contribute that way,' Staal said. "Especially if you have a string of losses, it's always weighing on me. It's nice to get the win and get on the score sheet too and I hope I can build off that and have a good second half."
However, even if Staal isn't scoring, his defensive and forechecking game remain elite.
Matched up against the Nico Hischier line, virtually the only line New Jersey had with top-end talent, Staal's line dominated.
Night in and night out, he continues to match up against the NHL's top talent and more often than not, he comes out ahead in those matchups.
That's why he's still such a valuable player.
"We know the effort's always there," said Rod Brind'Amour. "He hasn't often gotten rewarded this year, but that ended up being a huge goal. It didn't put the game away but it gave us a nice cushion there. We obviously like to see everyone get rewarded, but especially a guy that works hard and does it right every night."
The Finns
You know what they say, "More Finns, more wins."
So when the Canes get two Finnish goals and some strong Finnish goaltending, things are usually going well and last night was no different.
Sebastian Aho got the party going as he blew past the New Jersey blueliner after receiving a quick, cross-ice feed by Teuvo Teravainen.
Aho powered across the crease and finished on the backhand to give Carolina the edge.
Then in the second period, Teravainen bombed a power play one-timer off the opening draw to put the Canes up by two.
The pair had a strong game and have continued to click while paired together again.
Add on top of the fact that Antti Raanta played some lights out hockey and you've got a recipe for success thanks to some Finnish cooking.
Digging in
After a hard-fought road win against the Boston Bruins the night before, the Carolina Hurricanes flew back home to prepare for yet another tough matchup.
It was a tall task, but the Hurricanes proved ready for the test.
Early on, the Canes were sharp, jumping out to an early lead and then doubling and tripling up on it quickly into the second period.
However, as the game went on, the fatigue became more and more noticeable.
"We knew that it was going to be a tough back-to-back," Teravainen said. "Heavy night yesterday and a good game for us today. Just had to get us going again and I think we did a pretty good job. We were a little tired maybe at the end, but it was a good battle."
But that's when Raanta was at his best and really battled to keep his team ahead all the way till the end (even though a very fluky and bouncing puck ended up past him in the final two seconds of the game).
"Guys were helping me a lot," Raanta said. "There were a lot of bad rebounds were they came in and if I was able to make the second save, they bought in even more. That's how we play and that's why for a goalie, it's a little bit easier when you know guys are coming in and doing their best to help them out. You just try to make that first save and see what happens after that."
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