Logan Stankoven scored a Natual Hat Trick that started with a beautiful shorthanded goal, his team scored three times on the Power Play, and the Carolina Hurricanes started the Vancouver Canucks’ East Coast Roadtrip with a thorough 7-2 demolition.
Like their last game against Montreal, the Hurricanes got off to a quick start thanks to K’Andre Miller and the Sebastian Aho line. The game was just one minute in when Andrei Svechnikov went behind the net, which drew three Canucks to try and dislodge the puck.
Instead, Svechnikov was able to whip the puck over to Aho, who quickly passed to the blue line where Sean Walker took a shot that did everything but go in, including graze William Carrier. The puck bounced to the waiting stick of Miller who slammed it home to give Carolina a 1-0 lead just 1:18 into the game.
Because of the way the puck moved neither Aho nor Svechnikov were credited with an assist on the opening goal, but the tone had been set and it continued just a few minutes later. On their first Power Play of the night, Carolina kept it in the zone, leading to a pass out the Quarterback Shayne Gostisbehere. He lasered a perfect pass to Svechnikov in front of the net, and he was able to patiently get the puck in thaks to a nifty move by Kevin Lankinen to give Carolina a quick 2-0 lead.
Svechnikov would shortly make the Canes 2-2 on their first period power plays. It was a pretty simple tic-tac-toe play right off a face off win. The puck found its way to Gostisbehere, who passed it back to the dot to Jackson Blake. While gathering, Svechnikov went toward the goal all alone and Blake feathered a perfect pass to him that he was able to stuff in and give the Canes a 3-0 lead.
While the Power Play was on point, so was the Penalty Kill as the Canes killed off both penalties they received in the first, one of which carried over into the second. Pyotr Kochetkov didn’t face a ton of work in the first, only having to stop four shots.
The Canes continued their strong play in the second, first by finishing the penalty kill and then working hard to keep the puck in the zone for their fourth goal. Jesperi Kotkaniemi made perhaps his best play of the season in batting the puck back into the offensive zone right at the blue line. The puck found Mark Jankowski all alone in front of the net, and he took the time to wait out Lankinen before roofing a shot right past him.
The shutout though was short-lived as Vancouver got their first of the game thanks to Jake DeBrusk gathering a Jonathan Lekkerimaki rebound that Kochetkov was unable to gather. He went to the ice to make the stop, but the puck bounced over to DeBrusk who was able to get it the goalie. Vancouver then seemed to be grabbing some momentum as they earned their third Power Play of the night. But a minute in, Sean Walker was able to get the puck behind the net and get it over to Aho. Aho held it as two Canucks tried to dislodge it, then fed a streaking Walker who was joined on the rush by Logan Stankoven. Walker fed a perfect pass by Filip Hronek over to Stankoven, and Stankoven easily finished to give Carolina a 5-1 lead on their first short handed goal of the season.
The Canes then continued their perfect night on the Power Play as in the waning seconds of the second period Stankoven was able to take a great feed from Taylor Hall that took a small deflection off of Victor Mancini first. In what was a theme, Stankoven roofed his shot past Lankinen to give Carolina a 6-1 lead at the second intermission.
Stankoven would complete his hat trick in the third thanks to continued strong play by his line. The play started with Stankoven keeping the puck inside the offensive zone. He got it back below the line to Hall, and then worked his way all alone in front of the net. Hall fed him a perfect pass that Hall blasted past Leevi Merilainen, who had come in for Lankinen to start the third.
DeBrusk would score again a few minutes later leading to the final 7-2 score.
With one credited assist, Aho kept his point streak going at five games, while Blake and Hall joined Svechnikov with two points on the night.
The Hurricanes head back out on the road for a weekend back-to-back that’ll see them play in Chicago Saturday before returning to Philadelphia on Sunday—finishing their trips to the City of Brotherly Love for the regular season.
