‘At a loss’: Hurricanes seek to regroup down 2-0
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Greg Wyshynski
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes generate more shot attempts than any team in the NHL. So when their fans began chanting “shoot the puck!” during the second period of their 5-0 defeat in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night, it felt both surreal and indicative of how the Florida Panthers had absolutely dominated them to earn a 2-0 series lead.
“Tonight was not great. We’re going to have to own a crappy game,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said.
After getting 33 shots on goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 1, the Hurricanes generated only 17 shots, tied for third fewest in the franchise’s Stanley Cup playoff history. They had 78 shot attempts in Game 1. In Game 2, they generated only 53.
Though a ferocious Florida forecheck had a role in that shot suppression, Carolina winger Taylor Hall acknowledged that the Panthers injected some hesitancy in the Hurricanes’ offensive attack.
“We had chances to shoot. And we didn’t. I think we’re all a little bit at a loss,” Hall said. “When we look up at the shot clock and see [the total], that’s just not our game. That’s just not how we play. We generate offense by shooting pucks and getting them back, and then we draw a penalty or get a rebound. We generate momentum by doing that. And we just weren’t able to do it.”
The Panthers were relentless in Game 2, taking a 3-0 lead in the first period and never looking back.
“I didn’t know what I was watching in the first period. That didn’t go well,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’re not going to beat this team if we’re not on the same page. The intentions were good. Everyone’s trying. But that’s not how we do it and it just backfired.”
The catalyst for that first-period deficit was Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov, their leading goal scorer in the playoffs with eight. He was antagonized by the Panthers’ line of Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead just 1:17 into the game as the Bennett line created chaos in the attacking zone with a forecheck that forced a Svechnikov turnover. Defenseman Gustav Forsling slid into the slot and beat Frederik Andersen for his first of the playoffs.
Carolina is now 3-4 in the playoffs when it doesn’t score first, after going 17-23-3 in that situation in the regular season.
That same line created Florida’s second goal just over 10 minutes later. Again, the line threw the body on the forecheck. And again, it was Svechnikov coughing up the puck in his own end. Defenseman Niko Mikkola slid it behind the net to Verhaeghe, who noticed Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov was up the ice, creating a point-blank 2-on-1 with Tkachuk. Verhaeghe put the puck off Tkachuk’s skate for the 2-0 lead. It was Tkachuk’s first goal in 11 playoff games.
“It was an unreal start from us. The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets. That’s just a hell of a road trip,” Tkachuk said.
The Bennett line then made the Hurricanes lose their cool again. Tkachuk delivered a reverse hit on Svechnikov, who then checked him along the boards. Tkachuk delivered a cross-check to his back. Svechnikov retaliated near the benches and was whistled for roughing. Just like in Game 1 when Sebastian Aho earned a roughing minor in retaliation to an Anton Lundell cross-check, the Panthers made Carolina pay with a Bennett power-play goal to make it 3-0.
Brind’Amour said before Game 2 that all it takes is one lapse in judgment caused by the Panthers’ agitation to hurt the Hurricanes. Svechnikov had that lapse in Game 2.
“He had a tough night. He’s trying, but you’ve got to be on the same page, and he was on his own page. It didn’t work,” Brind’Amour said of Svechnikov.
Bennett scored again with less than a minute to go in the second period, his ninth of the postseason. Aleksander Barkov‘s power-play goal in the third period — scored against Pyotr Kochetkov, who replaced Andersen — completed the rout.
Staal said the challenge for Carolina is to not have negative thoughts about its chances of beating Florida enter its process.
“This game is mental. It’s all about the brain and your focus and the thoughts that can creep in,” Staal said. “When you let those thoughts like that come in, it never looks good. I think we’ve got to believe in the group and what we have and what we’ve done all year and go steal one.”
Hall said it was important to remember that the Panthers aren’t invincible, despite taking the first two games in Carolina by a combined score of 10-2.
“I mean, they just went seven games against the Leafs, right? They’re not a perfect hockey team,” Hall said. “We know that there are areas to exploit, like any team. They’re exploiting our weaknesses, obviously.”
Game 3 is Saturday night in Sunrise. The Hurricanes have now lost 14 straight games in the Eastern Conference finals, the past six of them to the Panthers.
Brind’Amour said he was surprised there wasn’t more urgency in his team’s game, considering the circumstances.
“I didn’t feel like we were that intense for the moment that we needed. I felt like we were actually a little too casual,” he said.
BOSTON — Rafael Devers had a career-high eight RBIs, hitting a three-run homer in the sixth inning and a grand slam in a 13-run eighth, to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Baltimore Orioles 19-5 on Friday in the opener of what was supposed to be a day-night doubleheader.
Boston trailed 2-1 entering the sixth, when Ceddanne Rafaela hit an RBI single off Seranthony Dominguez (2-1), Jarren Duran had an RBI single against Gregory Soto and Devers followed with his fifth homer in 10 career at-bats against Soto.
Devers had four hits and leads the major leagues with 47 RBIs. He hit his seventh career slam and his second in a six-day span, his 12th homer this season. The drive came off rookie infielder Emmanuel Rivera, who gave up eight runs and got three outs, leaving him with a 72.00 ERA. Devers hit an RBI single earlier in the inning against Cionel Pérez.
“Everybody is surprised about what he’s doing, but that’s who he is,” said Red Sox starter Brayan Bello, according to MLB.com. “Everybody was also surprised he got off to a slow start in the first five or six games, but we know the type of hitter that he is, the type of player that he is and the numbers he can put up.”
Boston scored its most runs since a 20-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 11, 2021, and finished with 20 hits.
Its 13 runs in the eighth inning are the franchise’s second most in an inning over the past 50 seasons (14 on June 27, 2003, against the Marlins). They were also the most runs by any team in the eighth inning or later since the New York Yankees on June 21, 2005, against the Tampa Bay Rays (also 13).
Baltimore has lost nine of 10 and and 15 of 18, dropping to 16-33. The Orioles are 1-5 since manager Brandon Hyde was fired and replaced on an interim basis by third-base coach Tony Mansolino.
Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman left because of right quadriceps tightness after singling in the fifth inning.
Rob Refsnyder had four RBIs, including a three-run homer in the eighth off Pérez. Duran had three RBIs.
The Red Sox had eight players score multiple runs, one shy of tying the franchise record.
Garrett Whitlock (3-0) allowed one hit in two scoreless innings.
Game 2 of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed later Friday because of rain. The teams will play a split doubleheader Saturday (1:05 p.m., 6:35 p.m.).
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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