Hurricanes face decisions in net with Andersen, Raanta healthy
RALEIGH, N.C. — Rod Brind’Amour felt comfortable all season distributing the Carolina Hurricanes’ goaltending load primarily between a pair of reliable veterans who were good enough to push his team to the league’s second-best record.
Things have looked different by necessity through the Stanley Cup Playoffs so far.
Carolina leaned on Antti Raanta through most of the first round with Frederik Andersen recovering from an illness, then Andersen started every game of the second round with Raanta battling his own ailment.
Each played well in those longer stints and is healthy now with the Hurricanes set to face the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final, leaving their coach with a decision ahead of the bestof-seven series.
“When they’re both healthy, now I have a good couple of options — we know that,” Brind’Amour said. “In both series, we didn’t really have that option. It was kind of like: OK, thankfully one guy was healthy so you run them out there.”
Andersen and Raanta combined to start 59 of 82 regular-season games, with 23-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov working as the third option. That group backstopped a defense that ranked second behind Boston by allowing 210 goals (2.56 per game).
A season earlier, Andersen and Raanta combined to secure the Williams M. Jennings Trophy awarded to the netminders who played in a minimum of 25 games for a team that allowed the fewest goals, with Andersen working as the No. 1 goalie on the way to 35 wins.
With this season’s rotation, Raanta never started more than five straight regular-season games and Andersen never started more than three straight. The hope was that avoiding workhorse loads would keep them fresh and minimize injury risks.
In the first round against the New York Islanders, Raanta started the first five games, with Andersen dressing twice but missing three games because of an illness. He won three, posting a 2.59 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
Andersen got the call in the Game 6 clincher and allowed one goal in the overtime win. He followed that by starting all five games of the second round against the New Jersey Devils.