Hurricanes break franchise record with 10th straight win

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — Antti Raanta made 19 saves for his second straight shutout and the 17th of his career, and the Carolina Hurricanes scored on three power plays for their 10th straight win, the franchise record, and batted the Florida Panthers were 4-0 up Friday night.

Stefan Noesen, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen scored the power play goals and Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored the team’s fourth goal just 10 seconds after another overman situation elapsed.

“It’s nice to have a night like this,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We haven’t really had anything like that all year, we took advantage of the power play. The special teams won the game for us. You have to have that click, you win games with it.”

Brett Burns and Seth Jarvis each had two assists as the Hurricanes extended their franchise’s top-scoring streak to 16 games.

“What I really like about this track is that we haven’t had any real dips in our game,” said Brind’Amour.

The Panthers, who went blank for the first time this season, have lost four of their last five games. Florida scored a season-high with seven goals the night before against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Hurricanes recorded a league-high five shutouts.

“They don’t give you a lot of light ice, so there’s not a lot of insider play,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “But we tried to find her.”

Raanta, playing for the fourth straight game, faced just three shots in the first period. The Panthers went eight minutes without a shot on goal in the third half. He shut out the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night.

“Try to save one at a time and obviously the guys are playing well in front of me that helps,” Raanta said.

The top three power-play goals of the season came after the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes totaled two goals on power plays in their last five games. Carolina ranked 27th in the NHL when power plays came into play.

“We’ve been fighting all year to make this work,” Kotkaniemi said.

The Panthers were 0-6 on powerplays after scoring three goals on powerplays Thursday night. Florida hasn’t won two games in a row since December’s first two games.

“We have to learn how to fight,” Maurice said.

Panthers goalie Spencer Knight made 30 saves.

It had been exactly a year since the Hurricanes had managed three power-play goals in a game.

“We know how important this is,” Brind’Amour said. “We got our chances, they went in. It doesn’t always work that way.”

When teammate Sebastian Aho’s shot rebounded, Noesen knocked into the game to make it 7:05. Aho’s assist gave him his first point in three games since returning from seven games from injury.

Svechnikov’s team-leading 19th goal came at 4:58 of the second period. About seven minutes later, Teravainen scored his third goal of the season.

BACK TO BACK

Combined with goalie Pyotr Kochetkov’s back-to-back shutouts earlier this month, the Hurricanes became the first NHL team in seven seasons to have two goalies with back-to-back-game shutouts in the same season.

Raanta required brief medical attention when he was rammed into the crease in the first half. This incident didn’t seem to bother him.

“There were a few dents on the goalkeeper. One was pretty tough,” said Brind’Amour. “It’s nice to see he got through it.”

ICE ON

Of Noesen’s eight goals, five were Carolina’s first goals of a game. … The four-goal lead equaled Florida’s most one-sided losses of the season. … In calendar year 2022, the Hurricanes finished 56-19-13 in regular-season games. Carolina went 12-0-1 in December.

NEXT

Panthers: Host the New York Rangers on Sunday.

Hurricanes: Sunday in New Jersey.

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