The Carolina Hurricanes cruised to their fourth win in a row with a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. The win improved their record to 4-1-1 for this early season.
Five different players notched goals and 11 got on the scoresheet.
Brandon Bussi made 24 saves on the 26 shots he faced to earn the win in net.
The Canes got started on the scoreboard late in the first when Jesperi Kotkaniemi found an open Mark Jankowski streaking in alone. Jankowski made a nice move and put the visitors
up, 1-0.
Jankowski now has a three game scoring streak, the longest of his career.
The second period was almost all Carolina as Sebastian Aho kept his hot play going with a shorthanded goal just two minutes and change in. K’Andre Miller found him and Aho made a move on his defender, (who had lost his stick), to get open and rifle in a shot.
A minute and change later, Jackson Blake, who was in front of the net, took a pass from Logan Stankoven and made it 3-0 Carolina. Blake is the one usually getting the assists and he leads the team with six so far this year.
Roman Kantserov stole a pass and broke in alone to make it 3-1, but a minute later, Taylor Hall made it 4-1. Blake and Reilly got the assists on this one.
Hall now has a three game point streak with his third goal of the season.
In the third period, Reilly would earn another assist when Jordan Martinook scored on his “patented” backhander. Nikolaj Ehlers also picked up his third assist of the year on the play.
The Hawks would outshoot the Canes the rest of the way and would score another goal, but by this time it was too little too late.
The Hurricanes flew to Philadelphia right after this match for a Sunday night tilt against the Flyers.
