Frederik Andersen made 24 saves. The Carolina Hurricanes booked their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings at PNC Arena on Thursday. Under head coach Rod Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes have qualified for the playoffs in all six seasons.
Brind’Amour said that it’s unfortunate for him that he gets overlooked a bit because of where he sits. They forget how difficult it is to accomplish. This is impressive and all of these people deserve credit. This is a huge achievement for them. Carolina Metropolitans finished three points behind the New York Rangers, missing out on second place in the division. The Colorado Avalanche were defeated 3-2 by the Rangers in a shootout on Thursday.
Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis had a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes (46-21-7), who are 10-2-1 in their last 13 games. Jake Guentzel had two assists. It was Anderson’s second shutout of the season and 26th in the NHL. His blood clot had jammed and due to this, he made a comeback on 7 March and after coming back he won all his seven matches. Because of this, he could not play 50 games.
Anderson said he took it to him and he was ready to play. He could not get the reward in the first period but he made it his own in the second period. He has a very good lead and he is maintaining it. James Reimer made 29 saves for the Red Wings (36-30-7). They have lost three in a row and 11 of their last 14 (3-10-1). Detroit is two points behind the Washington Capitals, preventing them from making it to the second wild card in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Washington played against the Toronto Maple Leafs, losing 5–1. Forwards Patrick Kane and Austin Czarnik, the Red Wings’ explosive players, are dealing with illnesses. Derek Lalonde, who is the coach of Detroit, said that he already knew that they were going to face tonight.
They didn’t know where their lineup was and for something like that to happen right before the game kind of stings. The pace at which they play makes it a difficult team to play with 11 forwards. At 4:42 of the second period, Aho gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. A short pass from Jarvis was taken by Guentzel. Delivered a cross-ice backhand pass to Aho to redirect at the left post. This marked his 250th NHL goal.
Aho said that he gets a chance to play with great players and also he gets a chance to play power play here. For this reason, he expects to produce on his own. It’s always good when he scores goals and gets points. But he tries to look at his game in a different way. Today’s game was very good for them because it was very easy for them to score goals and they were successful in getting the chance to score. It increased to 2–0 with a power-play goal by Jarvis. The puck was taken to the blue line by Aho and fed to Jarvis for a wrist shot between Reimer’s blocker and body. Jarvis said the momentum was huge so if he scores a goal early on and it goes well there is a desire to score another goal. Martin Necas made it 3–0 with a one-timer at the time Evgeni Kuznetsov headed it through the legs of Detroit forward Robby Fabbri across the slot. Brady Skee made it 4-0. He skated the length of the ice and then scored on his own rebound with a sharp-angle shot from the left face-off circle.