The 29-year-old journeyman tweener found himself as the starter for the Carolina Hurricanes and delivered a statement win

Things typically aren't going to go well for you if your third-string goaltender ends up as your starter... unless you're the Carolina Hurricanes.

With starting netminders Pyotr Kochetkov (short-term) and Frederik Andersen (long-term) unavailable due to injuries, journeyman Spencer Martin found himself in the driver's seat for the Canes and he delivered a statement win Saturday night.

"He's played really well for us when we've called upon him," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "That was a great game by him that enabled us to get the victory for sure. He made some big saves. There were a lot of really close calls. He saved us."

Martin led Carolina to a 4-0 shutout win over the Ottawa Senators which was not only the team's first of the season, but also the first of Martin's career.

"It's pretty cool," Martin said. "I mean, I'm more focused on winning games. I don't go in there looking for a shutout, but it's fun."

All night, Martin battled in the crease having to not only deal with a plethora of pucks and four Ottawa power plays, but also Senators captain Brady Tkachuk who was committed to just being a complete heel the entire night.

"You know the league and you know how certain players are going to be around the net and all that stuff," Brind'Amour said. "You have to be a pro about it and he was unfazed. It was good on him. A great game for him."

In the end, Martin was the one who got the last laugh though, especially with an emphatic final save on Tkachuk, which he followed up by flipping the puck back to him along with a stare down.

Martin joked that he had a moment of, 'I shouldn't have down that,' immediately after the stare down once he realized that Ottawa was going to be headed to the power play for another 30 seconds and that he needs to be more careful with that because, "sometimes guys get better when you do stuff like that."

"I think I probably went too far there, but I was also riding off my emotions to play well tonight," Martin said. "It is what it is. I think that's just being a competitor. I've found myself in situations like that before so it's really nothing, but you just have to use it for motivation."

Coming into the game, it had been a tough start to the year for Martin, who had started in the AHL for three games and then appeared in two losses at the NHL level resulting in a 0.806 save percentage and 5.19 goals against average.

However, Carolina knew what they had in Martin, who last season, after being acquired off of waivers, secured points in each of his first five starts, going 4-0-1 with a 0.922 save percentage.

But even still, it's a bit different when all of a sudden you have to be "the guy," except Martin just sees this as another opportunity. 

"I don't look at it as a tough situation because tougher would be me not being where I want to be," Martin said. "I really feel that it's meant to be that I get this chance and so in that case, I'm enjoying it and trying to do my best with it." 

Kochetkov is more than likely to return tomorrow against the St. Louis Blues, but Martin will be sticking around the team for the long haul with Andersen yet again dealing with a long-term injury. 

So while he may have just been the go-to guy for a short time, the team will need Martin to continue to perform as the season progresses and hopefully this big win can be a springboard for that.