Mikko Rantanen scored in his Hurricanes home debut as Carolina posted a 3-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Rantanen was in his third game overall since joining the team via trade from the Colorado Avalanche. The right winger had gone eight straight games without a goal.
Seth Jarvis and Jaccob Slavin also had goals for the Hurricanes. Juha Jaaska provided two assists.
Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves as the Hurricanes pushed their points streak to seven games (6-0-1).
Ilya Mikheyev and Connor Bedard scored for the Blackhawks, who lost for the fourth time in their past five games (1-2-2). Arvid Soderblom stopped 24 shots.
The Hurricanes played without forwards Taylor Hall, who would have made his home debut with Carolina after last week’s trade from the Blackhawks, and Sebastian Aho. They were listed out with illness, so Ryan Suzuki made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes.
Jarvis scored a short-handed goal with 3:03 remaining in the first period, his 20th tally of the season, three of them with his team down a man.
Chicago had only three first-period shots on goal, but one of those resulted in a goal from Mikheyev at 18:38.
Rantanen had 25 goals with Colorado this season, and he provided his first for the Hurricanes 4:52 into the second period. Just 67 seconds later, Carolina had a 3-1 edge when Slavin found the net.
The Hurricanes had quality chances to stretch the margin, but instead Bedard sliced the deficit in half 6:29 into the third period.
There were stretches when neither team generated many scoring chances, even though both teams were credited with 11 shots on goal in the second period. The Blackhawks pulled Soderblom with slightly less than two minutes remaining, and neither team converted the rest of the way.
Chicago was denied in its attempt for back-to-back victories, something it hasn’t accomplished since a three-game run in mid-December.
–Field Level Media
