Last night, the Carolina Hurricanes punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006. Carolina dominated Montreal with a resounding 6-1 victory in Game 5 to close the Eastern Conference Finals.
While the scoresheet had offensive standouts, headlined by three-point performances from Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall, the stabilizing force for the Hurricanes was, once again, Frederik Andersen.
Over the past three games, there has been much discussion about the Carolina defense
smothering Montreal, limiting Andersen’s action.
From the 4:43 mark of the second period of Game 3 to 10:50 left during Game 5, Andersen was perfect. Those 146 minutes and seven seconds of game time were the longest shutout streak in franchise history.
Though Carolina flew out of the gates to build a 3-0 first-period lead courtesy of Hall, Stankoven, and a breakaway by Eric Robinson, the game was far from over.
The Canadiens outshot the Hurricanes during the second period 11-9. This was the first time since the third period of Game 1 that Montreal outshot Carolina in a period.
A few minutes into the second period, the Canadiens went on the power play, needing a goal to start a comeback. Andersen made a pair of vital stops through heavy traffic, and not allowing any rebound chances.
Jackson Blake’s rebound goal sealed the game soon after that penalty kill, changing the focus to supporting Andersen in his shutout bid.
During the second intermission, Wayne Gretzky said the dreaded “s-word” out loud, much to the chagrin of goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
Just past halfway through the third, Andersen’s shutout bid ended on a power play goal by Cole Caufield.
The Habs had nine shots in the third, outshooting the Canes by three. At the final horn, Andersen stopped 23 of 24 shots. Those 24 shots were the most allowed by Carolina in three and a half weeks. Andersen stopped 34 of 36 shots during the overtime victory of Game 2 against Philadelphia.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s keep in mind that after the first period, MoneyPuck’s “Deserve to Win O’Meter” was 86 percent.
When looking at the advanced stats for the game, Montreal actually had more shot attempts than Carolina. But the Canes had more unblocked attempts than the Habs. The Carolina defense had 12 blocked shots, providing a big help to Andersen. That K’Andre Miller block to the midsection when the Canes were up big epitomizes this team’s effort and mindset.
Another great advanced stat to support Andersen’s Player of the Game win was his expected save percentage. He finished the game with a .958 save percentage, well-above his expected save percentage of .889 percent.
The reason for that shift was the third period, when Montreal had an expected-goal rate of 1.94. The Canadiens had some opportunities in high-danger areas and capitalized on just one.
Of course, there were the intangibles. Carolina wanted to continue their domination and win the East for the first time in 20 years in front of the Caniacs.
But along with this motivation, Andersen was playing with a heavy heart. His former agent and mentor, Claude Lemiuex, died earlier this week, and in his postgame interview, he said how he wanted to “make him proud and battle.”
Hall, Jordan Staal, Jaccob Slavin, Jordan Martinook, and others spoke about wanting to lift Andersen up during this difficult time. Hall shared with the national audience during the postgame celebration the critical message that “if you’re ever going through anything, it’s important to reach out to people.”
With the victory, Andersen continued to extend his career-best single-season playoff win total. He became just the third goaltender in NHL history to record 12 wins through his first 13 games of a single playoff year. He and Hall of Famers Ken Dryden and Gerry Cheevers are the only ones to do so.
The 12-1 Hurricanes are the first team to enter the Stanley Cup Final with fewer than two losses since the NHL adopted the full four-round, best-of-seven format in 1987.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final is Tuesday, June 2, at 8:00 PM in the Lenovo Center.
