’Canes seek improved power play

RALEIGH, N.C. — It doesn’t matter which team goes on a power play. The Hurricanes rarely seem to wind up with the advantage.

Of all the teams that made it out of the first round of the playoffs, the Hurricanes have been the league’s worst —when they’re up a man or when they’re down one. They are scoring on just 11% of their power plays in this postseason while killing less than 70% of their penalties.

“The special teams haven’t been great, obviously,” defenseman Justin Faulk said Monday, “and that’s easy to see.”

They provide a sharp contrast to the Bruins and their best-in-theplayoffs power-play unit, which scores on a full third of its chances and has nearly as many power-play goals in this series (four) as the Hurricanes have in the entire postseason (five).

So maybe it’s no surprise the Bruins have won the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals with Game 3 coming up Tuesday in Raleigh — where the Hurricanes are unbeaten in the playoffs.

“Playoffs is all about putting pressure on the other team, and seeing how they do” captain Justin Williams said. “We have to get a win (Tuesday), first of all, and push back a little bit and see how they respond. It’s not a do-or-die-or-go-home, but it is an important game for us.”

And when the puck drops, one thing will be clear for the Hurricanes. If they’re going to get back into this series, they need both of their special teams to be, well, a bit more special.

One of the key subplots of this series has been just how dominant the Bruins’ special teams have been. The Bruins are 4 of 7 on the power play through two games, scoring two goals in each with all four coming at relatively important times. What’s more, two of their even-strength goals in Game 2 came seconds after they killed penalties.

“The power play is huge. If we don’t score, we have to get some momentum off it,” Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen said. “Just getting some ice time, you should put the puck in the net sometimes.”

The Hurricanes — who had a string of 24 straight power plays without a goal in the earlier rounds — are 1 of 7 in this series with the man advantage and were 0 of 4 during a 6-2 blowout in Game 2.