Canes cooking at home
Roll after scoring first again to 3-2 series lead
The Black and Gold vibes were good on Tuesday afternoon. Coming off two inspirational home wins, the Bruins got an unexpected boost when Charlie McAvoy, fresh out of COVID protocol, unexpectedly arrived at PNC Arena, and fans back in Boston surely had visions of a third straight victory in Game 5.
Then the puck was dropped and the Carolina Hurricanes simply reasserted the dominance they’ve flexed in their home rink, cashing in on early opportunities that the B’s could not to capture a 5-1 victory. For the third straight time in Raleigh in this series, a promising start fizzled quickly.
The B’s can only hope that the home cooking in this series continues through Game 6 at the Garden on Thursday, because they now trail the best-ofseven series 3-2 and the next loss will end their season.
“Again, three times in this buidling and I thought we were the better the first six, seven minutes. They had one chance and it found it’s way in and that gives them a lot of juice,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Not enough up and down the lineup. We’re going to need a little more, whether it’s working hard to keep the puck out of the net, which we did up in Boston a lot better, blocking shots, finishing checks so guys can’t join the rush, sorting out coverages quick. The first goal shouldn’t happen if we were on our toes defensively. So that concerns me. We need to get some guys going. That’s on me to find a way to get them going. But it’s also the time of year where that inner drive comes through.”
On a night when nothing went in for the B’s top line, the rest of the lineup failed to pick anyone up. After falling down 2-0, Cassidy tried all sorts of line combinations, but nothing worked.
Taylor Hall hasn’t scored a 5-on-5 goal since Game 1. Craig Smith is without a goal in the series. Tomas Nosek hasn’t scored a goal since Jan. 2 and was stapled to the bench in the second period. Erik Haula has not been the presence he was in the second half of the regular season. Outside of his shorthanded goal in Game 3 — and it was a huge goal — Charlie Coyle has not had his usual cycling puckpossession shifts on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, Cassidy said he learned around lunchtime that McAvoy had cleared protocol and was joining the team. McAvoy, who met reporters wearing an N95 mask, did not want to get into detail on how he was able to get out of protocol.
“I got sick, I went through it, made it out the other side and here we are now,” said McAvoy, who wouldn’t say when he first started feeling symptoms.
McAvoy skated a gamehigh 25:14.
“I’m a little tired, but I’m just working through it and I’m on the other side of it now. I look forward to feeling better every day,” he said.
Hampus Lindholm, who missed his third straight game after suffering a suspected concussion, could return for Game 6. But there’s another decision looming for Cassidy — the goaltender. Jeremy Swayman, who allowed a leaky goal on Carolina’s first tally in his third straight start, has not started four consecutive games all year.
“(Swayman) was not as clean as he had been. I thought he had some tough puck luck,” said Cassidy, adding he’ll make a decision on whether it will be Swayman or Linus Ullmark for Game 6 either Wednesday or Thursday.
Like the first two games of the series in Carolina, the B’s competitiveness waned dramatically after the first goal against. And for the eighth time in game between the two teams in the season series, the Canes took the first lead of the game at 6:11, despite yet another promising start .
First, Andrei Svechnikov knocked Matt Grzelcyk off the puck at along the left boards, keeping the Carolina attack alive. Tony DeAngelo, embroiled in all sorts of beefs in Sunday’s Game 3, answered with an excellent first period. He made a nifty backhand pass to Jaccob Slavin on the right side and Slavin ripped a shot from the right dot that broke through Swayman and dribbled over the line. It was one Swayman would have liked back.
Then a penalty was called on Derek Forbort that the refs should want back. After Forbort and Max Domi got into some routine pushing and shoving after a whistle, Forbort was the lone player sent to the box. It was a gamechanging bad call.
“Not surprised at all. Nope,” said Cassidy on the call, leaving his feelings wide open for interpretation. “We knew what we were facing coming in here after last game and we’ve just got to a better job on the penalty kill.”
The Canes looked much more confident on the power play than they did in Boston, and DeAngelo smoked a slapper past three would-be shot-blockers and finally Swayman at 12:17 for the 2-0 Carolina lead.
Before they fell behind, the B’s had numerous chances to take the first lead of the season series. The best one came for Brad Marchand, who was all alone in front and threw just about every move in his book before he flipped a backhander which Antti Raanta snared with his glove.
They went down 3-0 at 15:52 of the second when Murphy’s Law came into full effect. Just at the end of the Carolina power-play, Brandon Carlo’s clear attempt bounced off Jake DeBrusk and past Swayman for a 3-0 Carolina lead at 15:52. Seth Jarvis was the lucky Cane to get credit for the goal.
From that point on, it was mostly about conserving energy for the B’s last stand at the Garden.