Jaccob Slavin scored with 7:30 remaining to break a tie and lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 victory against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla., avenging two disturbing losses from last month.
Brent Burns had the first Carolina goal and Martin Necas added an empty netter with 28 seconds to play. The Hurricanes won for only the second time in their last 10 road games (2-6-2).
Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 25 shots, helping Carolina win for just the second time in its last five games overall.
Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers and netminder Sergei Bobrovsky had a splendid effort in Florida’s goal with 37 saves.
The Panthers’ back-to-back victories against the Hurricanes in mid-December came by a combined score of 12-3, including a 6-0 blanking at home. The Hurricanes were clearly motivated to put forth a better performance on Thursday night.
It was just the second goal of the season for Slavin, who also assisted on Burns’ tally just 35 seconds into the first period.
The Hurricanes logged 14 of the game’s first 15 shots, but managed only the 1-0 lead as Florida went on what turned out to be an unsuccessful power play.
Florida quickly transitioned after Bobrovsky’s slick save at one end, converting on Lundell’s goal 2:17 into the second period to knot the score at 1-1.
But by the end of the frame, Carolina had 16 shots for the second consecutive period. The Hurricanes held a 32-15 advantage in shots heading to the third period.
Necas posted his 15th goal of the season and first since Dec. 5 after falling of the NHL’s points race. He held the top spot for the first month of the season.
Carolina went 0 for 3 on power plays, but they thwarted both of the Panthers’ man advantages. That included Florida’s power play early in the third period.
It marked the NHL debut for Carolina forward Juha Jaaska.
–Field Level Media
