Mark Jankowski and Andrei Svechnikov had two goals each, Jackson Blake continued his torrid pace with a goal, Pyotr Kochetkov showed no signs of rust in his first game in a week, and the Carolina Hurricanes utterly demolished the Seattle Kraken 5-1 in the second game of the 2026 Global Series in Helsinki, Finland.
The win puts Carolina at 16-3-2 on the season, and outscoring opponents in their last five wins 25-4.
The first period would look the same that the first period did on Thursday, with the Canes
taking a 2-0 lead. Still, it took a different path to get there as Seattle came out with a different energy and effort than on Thursday’s match. No where was this shown than the first two Power Plays for Carolina as they had over 1:30 of a 5-on-3 where unlike their previous 5-on-3 efforts this season, the Canes actually shot the puck on net and had several chances, but Kraken goalie Joey Daccord made several good stops. Carolina then had to fight back with a penalty kill of their own, which saw Seattle be more aggressive than on Thursday.
However, at the end of that penalty, Seattle was called for yet another infraction as Berkly Catton tripped up Jackson Blake, and the third time turned out to be the charm. Carolina’s first power play unit dominated, and then one of the most beautiful passing displays you’ll see led to the Canes’ first goal. Shayne Gostisbehere did a great job keeping the puck in, throwing it over to Nikolaj Ehlers. Ehlers went cross-ice over to Sebastian Aho who feathered a pass between his legs to Jackson Blake. Blake was in perfect position to snap it in and Carolina had a 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later the only Finn for the Hurricanes that hadn’t gotten a point remedied that, while showing why he stayed in the lineup on the return of Jordan Staal. Again a tough keep in by the Canes lead to Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the puck on his stick. He dealt a great pass over to the white-hot Mark Jankowski, who was able to blast it by Daccord and give the Canes a 2-0 lead.
The second period was the Andrei Svechnikov Power Play Show. Each goal was almost an identical play with Svechnikov finding his office at the faceoff circle to the goalie’s left, and just taking a great pass and slapping it through. The first goal saw the Canes apply constant net front pressure that collpased the Kraken’s penalty kill unit, leading to easy passes around the permited and ending up on Svechnikov’s stick for the one timer.
Seattle was able to claw one back thanks to a great play by Matty Beniers, but Carolina went right back on the attack. It looked like they had one back when Daccord kicked the net off its morings and Jackson Blake put on a shot that would have gone in. However, it was called no goal on the ice and wasn’t reviewed. Shortly thereafter, though, Brandon Montour slashed Jordan Martinook’s stick right out of his hands and the Canes were given their fifth power play. That power play went almost exactly like the fourth with the Canes collpasing the Kraken’s penalty kill and leading to a wide-open one-timer by Svechnikov.
That goal was the last one for Daccord as he was pulled in favor of Philipp Grubauer. Carolina would continue to dominate the period but Grubauer managed to settle things in as the Canes tried to get Svechnikov his hat trick.
Svechnikov would be denied, but for the third period Seattle never really put up a fight. The Canes’ continued their relentless pressure and Jankowski would score his second of the game on a beautiful rush and shot fake by Taylor Hall.
Carolina just wouldn’t let up, but Grubauer denied chances for both Jankowski and Svechnikov to get their third, and when the final horn sounded the Canes took a 5-1 victory with them on the plane back to Raleigh.
Pyotr Kochetkov had an efficient evening, making twelve saves including a couple of highlight reel moves that show he had shaken off his first loss of the season over a week ago. The unsung hero may have been Ehlers with three assists on the evening and a total of five points in front of his own friends and family as the Dane was just a stone’s throw away from his home country.
The Canes now will fly back to Raleigh and try to get back on Eastern Standard time over the next few days before taking the ice again against two of the top teams in the NHL. Thursday sees an Eastern Conference Finals rematch with Montreal while Saturday sees the second game against Edmonton. The Canadiens have shaken off a slow start to be at the top of the Atlantic, while Edmonton has continued to tear it up.
