Andersen's stellar saves and a potent second line fueled the Hurricanes' decisive victory over the Red Wings, showcasing offensive firepower.
The Carolina Hurricanes just can't stop winning it seems, this time picking up a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings Saturday night at Lenovo Center.
It was a strong performance overall for Carolina, who allowed just two goals during 4v4 play in the second period, but it was an especially good game for a select few players.
Frederik Andersen picked up just his eighth win of the season, making 27 saves in the victory, including some really good grade-A chances.
"Freddie was the best player tonight, for sure," said Jackson Blake. "For both teams. He was unbelievable and that's what he brings. We know how good Freddie is and what he can do for us as a group. He was outstanding. There was at least three or four breakaways that he stopped and many more chances. But he was phenomenal."
Outside of Andersen, the other two top performers on the night where Taylor Hall and Shayne Gostisbehere, who both had three-point nights.
For Hall, it's his first three-point game of the season, but for Gostisbehere, who reached the 10-goal and 40-point markers in just his 42nd game tonight, it's his fifth such outing.
"Our offense is heavily driven on low-to-high stuff and getting pucks to the net, so I think it works for an offensive defenseman,' Gostisbehere said. "For myself, just trying to do what I do best and try to help out offensively while being responsible defensively."
The Canes enjoyed yet another early offensive outpouring Saturday night, much like Thursday, as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead less than halfway through the game.
Taylor Hall got the party started, scoring a silky smooth goal off of a breakaway he orchestrated after blocking a shot at the defensive blueline.
"If that's at the start of the period, it probably goes all the way down to the goalie with fresh ice, but it didn't," Hall said. "I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do, honestly. I tried to sell forehand, didn't really work, so I went to option two. I'm not much of a backhand on the breakaway kind of guy. I like to go to my forehand, but it managed to work out. Big goal for our team there."
It was the second straight game with a goal for Hall, who now has 14 tallies and 32 points with Carolina, and his line with Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake continued to look like difference makers too.
After a dominant game against the Lightning, the trio were again the top-rated line for the Hurricanes, outchancing Detroit 15-1 in their 5v5 minutes.
Then with 7.9 seconds remaining in the first period, Sebastian Aho threaded a puck through traffic on the power play and found a friendly bounce off of Simon Edvinsson's stick to put his team up 2-0.
The Hurricanes would add to the lead quickly into the second period as Sean Walker stepped up in the neutral zone to intercept an outlet pass, then found William Carrier cross-ice, who then one-touched it to Eric Robinson in front of the net.
The Hurricanes were well in control of the game from there, but Detroit every so often was slipping through the cracks and finding some open space.
However, Andersen was standing tall.
The only time things started to get dicey though, was at 4v4.
As the second period came to a close, and with Andrei Svechnikov and Ben Chiarot in the box, the Canes apparently decided that they could just casually skate their way into intermission.
Detroit had other plans though, taking advantage of Carolina's lax defense and lackadaisical effort to pot two quick ones in the span of 47 seconds.
The Hurricanes have made blowing multi-goal leads a habit this year and that segment was another example in how they've been doing it.
You can't take shifts off in the NHL. You're gonna get burned.
However, the Canes took the intermission to regroup and came out to start the third period in a fury.
"The game was still in a good spot for us and I don't want to lose track of the fact that we were playing really well for whatever it was," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "It was a minute a half of bad. And yeah, the game, we have to get to it, but what we were doing for the most part is what we had to do. And we did. We came out in the third and guys answered and got one right away and I thought played fairly well."
First Shayne Gostisbehere laced one top corner after a give-and-go with Jackson Blake, then Blake got loose on a 3-on-1 and called his shot to push Carolina's lead back up to three.
"I pretty much had a mini breakaway and I was thinking, 'I'm shooting this thing,'" Blake said. "I already hit the post. I'm glad that one went in. It was a good feeling for that to go in, for sure."
From there, the Hurricanes simply smothered the Red Wings, giving up virtually very little as they capped off their 12th straight game with a point.
Carolina will now head out on a four-game road trip out West.
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