RALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 The Carolina Hurricanes had to wait seven days between finishing their first-round sweep of the Ottawa Senators and starting their second-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s enough time for minor injuries to heal. It\u2019s also enough time for rust to set in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we play good, people will be like it was the rest,\u201d defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said during the layoff. \u201cIf we play bad, it\u2019ll be like it was the rest. So, you know, it goes both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
It went the first way. Hurricanes forward Logan Stankoven scored twice and the Hurricanes looked every bit the top seed in the Eastern Conference, beating Philadelphia, 3-0, on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Flyers, who eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, managed 18 total shots on Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen and failed to generate more than one total expected goal until late in the game.<\/p>\n
Game 2 is Monday at Lenovo Center \u2014 an NHL decision that, due to scheduling conflicts at Philadelphia\u2019s Xfinity Mobile Arena, wasn\u2019t announced until shortly before puck drop.<\/p>\n
A feisty finish<\/p>\n
There were a number of post-whistle scrums in the latter half of the third period. Blake and Flyers forward Trevor Zegras went after one another with 11:46 to go, with Zegras taking a couple shots at Blake, who appeared to slash Zegras just before that. Both earned 10-minute misconducts. Philadelphia\u2019s Travis Konecny and Carolina\u2019s Taylor Hall grappled with each other at that point, too. Konecny may have been upset with Hall for running over Christian Dvorak earlier with a hard, clean hit into the wall.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Gostisbehere took a subtle shot at Luke Glendening after Andersen froze the puck, drawing the attention of Nick Seeler, who flew in and flattened the Hurricanes defenseman. Gostisbehere and Seeler were tagged with 10-minute misconducts, as well.<\/p>\n
Stankoven trio still scorching<\/p>\n
Stankoven and his linemates had a remarkable series against the Ottawa Senators, and that carried over into Game 1. Stankoven now has six goals and an assist in five postseason games and has opened the scoring in four of them. Still just 23 years and 65 days old, he\u2019s the youngest player to begin a postseason on a five-game goal streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s confident because he\u2019s prepared, right? He\u2019s put in the work,\u201d Hurricanes coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour said before the game. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about in anything you do. You want the test. When you study for it, like, \u2018Give me the test.\u2019 And this kid\u2019s been studying his craft for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blake assisted on Stankoven\u2019s first goal and added one of his own in the second period. Hall assisted on the latter, getting all three members of Carolina\u2019s second line on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
Tippett sits with injury<\/p>\n
The Flyers have made it no secret that winger Owen Tippett is dealing with \u2026 something. But it was still a bit surprising that he was scratched for Game 1 due to injury, considering that Tippett played nearly 22 minutes in the series-clincher against the Penguins on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In six games against Pittsburgh, Tippett had one goal and one assist, but he still seemed to be moving his legs and playing a physical brand of hockey. On the shift before Cam York\u2019s overtime winner in Game 6, it was Tippett who drove the net, leading to a Porter Martone rebound try and subsequent offensive zone draw.<\/p>\n
Garnet Hathaway returned to the lineup on the fourth line after he was a healthy scratch on Wednesday. Alex Bump was, uh, bumped up to the Zegras line with Martone, taking Tippett\u2019s place. None of it worked, as the Flyers were out-skated virtually the entire game. Not having their fastest player in the lineup didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s sprawling save<\/p>\n
With 9:07 remaining in the second period, it\u2019d be wrong to say this game hung in the balance \u2014 the Hurricanes held a 2-0 lead and a comical edge in every relevant puck-possession statistic. It\u2019s reasonable to think, though, that the remaining 1 1\/2 periods would\u2019ve played out a bit differently had Hurricanes defenseman K\u2019Andre Miller not made a remarkable desperation play to erase Philadelphia\u2019s best chance of the game.<\/p>\n
As a Carolina power play expired, Hathaway sprang out of the box for what looked to be a breakaway attempt on Andersen. Enter Miller, who showed a wild burst of closing speed in pursuit of Hathaway, then sprawled out for a poke check that both disrupted Hathaway\u2019s attempt and didn\u2019t draw a penalty. It was the exact sort of play that made Carolina acquire him from the New York Rangers and immediately sign him for $60 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor him to come this distance, there aren\u2019t a lot of defensemen in the league who can close on a player like that,\u201d ESPN analyst P.K. Subban said at intermission. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes K\u2019Andre Miller special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svechnikov shakes it off<\/p>\n
In the closing minute of the second period, disaster appeared to strike Andrei Svechnikov. The Hurricanes forward, after a tie-up with Martone along the far boards in the offensive zone, lay sprawled out on the Lenovo Center ice, grabbing his right knee. Svechnikov tore his right ACL in 2023 and missed that season\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs, and fans in attendance went silent enough to show that they hadn\u2019t forgotten.<\/p>\n
Svechnikov hadn\u2019t twisted his knee or fallen awkwardly, though; he\u2019d been slashed by Flyers forward Tyson Foerster while he was engaged with Martone. It was a solid swing, but not worth the five-minute major that Foerster was initially assessed before it was downgraded to a two-minute minor. Svechnikov returned for Carolina\u2019s ensuing power play.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the game, on Stankoven\u2019s second goal, Svechnikov registered his first point of the postseason. Brind\u2019Amour was unconcerned about that lack of production, he said, because Svechnikov and linemates Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis kept Ottawa Senators stars Brady Tkachuk and Tim St\u00fctzle in check during the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care, really, about the points,\u201d Svechnikov said before the game. \u201cIf I get zero points and we win the Stanley Cup, I would be the happiest person in the world, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Philly\u2019s continued power outage<\/p>\n
Perhaps the least surprising development of the night for the Flyers was that the power play again did nothing, finishing 0-for-4. Even worse, they had three separate advantages while trailing 2-0, giving them at least an opportunity to cut into Carolina\u2019s lead and change the momentum. But they didn\u2019t manage a single shot on goal on any of them, while Carolina had three short-handed shots.<\/p>\n
Their fourth power play came with 4:48 left in regulation, but they still failed, even with goalie Dan Vladar pulled for an extra attacker, making it a six-on-four. Philadelphia\u2019s power play is now just 2-for-21 in the playoffs, with both of its goals coming in a Game 3 win over the Penguins.<\/p>\n
It all adds up to an offense that has gone incredibly cold. The Flyers now have just five goals over their last four games.<\/p>\n
This story will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 The Carolina Hurricanes had to wait seven days between finishing their first-round sweep of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10171,4843,69,4845,71,70],"class_list":["post-182593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}