Own goals and questionable penalties derailed the Hurricanes. Coach Brind'Amour and Sebastian Aho talk on the loss.
The Carolina Hurricanes fell 3-2 to the Dallas Stars on Saturday night, capping off their six-game road trip with a 4-2-0 record.
The Canes struck early with goals by Jackson Blake and Sebastian Aho, but two own-goals and some tough special teams breaks cost them the game in the end.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Aho spoke with the media in Dallas. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the turning point of the game: It's obvious. An unfortunate penalty there when we're on the power play. That puts stress on us and then we took another one and then that was the game. There it is. Tough play. Certainly thought with what we're throwing out there on the backend, those guys hung in there. We had our chances to win, but obviously came up short.
On special teams: One they tipped in front and we had a little bit of miscommunication there. It was a good play by them. Then the other one, it looked like he was trying to pass it and then it went straight in. But that was a 4-on-3 and those are real tough to kill. We definitely lost the game because of special teams. No question about that.
On the second period: I actually thought we had a good second period. They had their chances, we had ours. We hit a couple posts in the first period. This game could have easily gone our way, but we obviously have to score on the power play at some point. Putting too much stress on the penalty kill.
On the road trip as a whole: Well, it's tough when you lose a game that was there for us. Probably shouldn't have won the game the other night though so I guess you can say it worked out, but it's a huge concern with the injuries that we have. It's not sustainable to think that we're going to go out there and win every night with what we have back there. But those guys dug in and did the best they could.
Sebastian Aho
On what the game ultimately came down to: It was right there for us. Obviously a tight game, but they got a couple of bounces. Obviously they earned them, but like I said, they got a couple of bounces. We pushed at the end, but didn't get the results. It is what it is. It wasn't that bad of a game. We were right there and that's a good team too. Gotta take the positives, learn from this one and move forward.
On the second period: That first goal, it just goes in off our own guy. It's a nothing play, right, but obviously goals dictate the momentum in this league. They did a good job of using that momentum, but it was a tight game from start to finish and there wasn't much space.
On the road trip as a whole: It would have been nice to finish it out with a win obviously, but it was a long road trip and we fought hard. Played some good hockey on the trip, played good teams and we were able to win against a couple of good teams. But now we get to go home and kind of get back at it. Mentally gotta be ready for the next one.
On getting back home after two weeks on the road: I miss my baby so much. I can't wait to give some hugs and kisses to her.
On the team battling through adversity: Like I said, it wasn't the easiest trip obviously. Early in the year and a lot of travel. Every team goes through that, so there's obviously no excuses at all, but just played against good teams. I thought for most of it, we played some good hockey like what we showed here. We showed to ourselves what the style of play is and how we want to play. Especially on the road, it's not pretty, but I like a lot of what we did, but obviously kind of a bad taste at the end here. You hope to finish off on the right note.
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