Mrazek, Hurricanes shut down Blackhawks’ offense
A hot goalie and a rejuvenated power play helped the Carolina Hurricanes break a three-game winless streak with a 4-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Petr Mrazek stopped 32 shots to record his second shutout in 12 days and the Hurricanes went 2-for-2 on the power play as they returned home with a win following a four-game road swing. Andrei Svechnikov scored twice, Nino Niederreiter had a goal and one assist, Jordan Staal scored and Sebastian Aho had two assists for Carolina.
Chicago has lost four straight, including one overtime loss, and now has totaled just two goals in its last three games. Corey Crawford made 27 saves on 31 shots for the Blackhawks.
Mrazek, who posted a 31-save shutout at Los Angeles on Oct. 15, was sharp throughout the game, particularly during a flurry of
Chicago opportunities in the closing minutes of the first period that included a pad save on Patrick Kane at the goalmouth after a cross-ice feed.
“I saw the puck very well and the guys did a great job in front of me, so it made it easier,” Mrazek said.
Svechnikov opened the scoring on the first power-play goal of his career with a wrist shot over Crawford’s right shoulder from the top of the faceoff circle in the game’s fifth minute. Staal also scored with the man advantage in the third period as the Hurricanes
broke out of a power play drought.
Carolina had been just 1-for-19 on the power play over the previous six games. Coach Rod Brind’amour said the team works on the power play in every practice, so the improvement wasn’t necessarily due to any specific strategy the team put in place.
“When we go 0-for5, we worked on it the day before, too,” Brind’amour. “And you are looking for stuff. Everybody looks. They’ve got the video. You know what you’re trying to do. The other team knows what you’re trying to do. It just usually comes down to execution, and tonight we were able to capitalize.”
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks were 0-for-3 with the man advantage. Chicago is 3-for-29 on the power play this season.
PREDATORS 3, LIGHTNING 2, OT: Ryan Ellis scored 3:15 into overtime and Nashville beat Tampa Bay. Ellis scored from the left circle shortly after Nashville failed to score on power play that resulted from Tampa Bay having too many men on the ice. BRUINS 3, BLUES 0: David Pastrnak scored his 11th goal, Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for his second shutout this season and Boston won a Stanley Cup rematch with St. Louis.
CANADIENS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Jonathan Drouin scored two goals on breakaways, and Montreal beat Toronto. Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Nick Suzuki also scored for the Canadiens, who snapped a two-game losing skid. Carey Price made 29 saves.