– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY — You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket, it is said, and as far as the Carolina Hurricanes were concerned, they just needed to try their luck shooting at the net at the beginning of Sunday’s game after being held without a shot on goal for the first nine minutes of their last game.
With his team’s first shot, and for the rest of his game, Andrei Svechnikov hit the jackpot.
Svechnikov scored a hat trick, netting a goal in each period, as the Hurricanes used a strong start to defeat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs first round series to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. Jaccob Slavin and Jordan Martinook also scored for the Hurricanes, who will return to Raleigh on Tuesday with the chance to advance to the second round of the playoffs for a fifth season running.
Carolina played most of the final two periods with Pyotr Kochetkov in net after starting goalkeeper Frederik Andersen was knocked out of the game after a collision with Devils forward Timo Meier. Kochethov allowed a goal on the second shot he faced that cut Carolina’s advantage to 3-2 midway through the second period, but recovered quickly and stopped every shot afterward to preserve the victory.
Carolina was uncharacteristically on its heels at the start of Friday night’s Game 3 that it lost in overtime and saw it not register a shot on goal for the first nine minutes of the contest. Less than one minute into Sunday, Carolina was on the board with its first shot of the game after Svechnikov got hold of the puck at the top of the right circle and whipped a wrist shot past Devils goalkeeper Jacob Markstrom to give Carolina the perfect start just 52 seconds in.
The majority of the first period was played on the Devils’ end of the ice as Carolina suffocated New Jersey in the offensive zone, and that pressure paid off at the end of a shift to double the Hurricanes’ advantage. New Jersey’s Stefan Noesen attempted to clear the puck out of the zone while both teams were going for a change, but Slavin intercepted the pass at the blue line and carried the puck along the left wing boards. With no real options given his team was in the midst of a change, Slavin rocketed a sharp-angle shot that went over Markstrom’s shoulder and into the net for a 2-0 lead at 9:47 of the first.
Svechnikov also scored on Carolina’s first shot of the second period, deflecting a shot-pass from Seth Jarvis on the power play and extending the Hurricanes’ lead to three just 42 seconds in to the middle stanza.
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