Logan Stankoven’s power-play goal midway through the third period broke a tie for Carolina, and the Hurricanes never trailed in defeating host Ottawa 4-2 on Saturday afternoon to eliminate the Senators from the playoffs.
The Hurricanes completed a four-game sweep in the best-of-seven, first-round Eastern Conference series.
Sebastian Aho scored two empty-net goals, and Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist for Carolina. Seth Jarvis had two assists and Frederik Andersen made 25 saves.
For the Senators, Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Cozens scored. Linus Ullmark stopped 26 shots.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, on being eliminated Saturday. “Really tight series. Give them credit; they’re a great team. They play hard, don’t give you much.”
Stankoven’s power-play goal 9:10 into the third period gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead. He put the carom off the back boards into the open side of the net for his fourth goal of the series.
‘The guy’s a gamer,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said of Stankoven. “He competes so hard. I just tell him ‘Get to the net.’ ”
Aho’s first empty-netter came with 2:22 left. Cozens made it 3-2 with Ullmark pulled and 1:49 remaining. Aho got his second empty-netter with 1:15 left.
Batherson’s power-play goal had tied it 1-1 with 2:52 left in the second period. He redirected Tim Stutzle’s shot for Batherson’s third goal of the series. That came after Hall had given Carolina a 1-0 lead on a shot from the inside edge of the left circle off the rush with 4:45 remaining in the period.
The second period featured several scrums. The first came 4:30 into the middle period after a clean check by Ottawa defenseman Tyler Kleven along the boards left Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin dazed and on the ice. He was woozy as he was helped off the ice.
Kleven was not penalized for the hit.
Ottawa was without defenseman Jake Sanderson due to a concussion suffered in Game 3 when he was hit in the head by Hall, who received a minor penalty on the play. Sanderson’s usual partner on the top defensive duo, Artem Zub, has been out since leaving Game 1 with an undisclosed injury.
Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers did not play because of a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
