The defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes look to continue an early-season hot streak when they visit the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon.
This is the first meeting in a two-game season series between the teams. Carolina has taken three straight in the overall series, defeating Winnipeg 5-1 in Raleigh when they last met last November.
The Hurricanes have turned the corner since starting the season 0-1-1 and are riding a six-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s matinee. Rod Brind’Amour’s squad has scored four or more goals in five straight, defeating the Washington Capitals 4-2 their last time out.
Against Washington, Andrei Svechnikov had two goals and an assist, including a third-period power-play goal, as the Hurricanes rallied out of a 2-1 hole. Svechnikov is tied with Sebastian Aho for the team lead with six goals.
Aho tallied two assists to bring his season total to a team-leading 13 points. Pyotr Kochetkov made 20 saves in his start and improved to 4-0-0 on the season. The Hurricanes outshot the Capitals 27-12 across the second and third periods.
“I give the guys a lot of credit. They’ve been prepared,” Brind’Amour said after the win against the Capitals. “We’re at a point now where we’re pretty confident in what works. It’s just a matter of getting to it. It’s not easy. We had big plays at the right times.”
“It feels like these last couple of games, for sure, the boys have been clicking,” forward Jackson Blake added. “It feels like how we were playing in the (Stanley Cup) playoffs a little bit.”
Meanwhile, the Jets are searching for consistency after starting the season 4-1-2 but dropping two of their last three tilts.
Winnipeg withered late against the Anaheim Ducks and allowed three third-period goals in a 5-1 loss on Oct. 9. They impressed in their next home game, rallying past the Minnesota Wild for a 5-2 win, but weren’t as successful their last time out as they fell 4-3 to the host Chicago Blackhawks in overtime.
The Blackhawks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Thursday and skated into the first intermission with a 3-1 advantage. Neal Pionk, Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo found the back of the net for Winnipeg, and Stuart Skinner pitched two shutout periods to push the game to overtime. Skinner was beaten by a wrist shot in the slot by Artyom Levshunov at 1:37 of OT.
Pionk had an opportunity to score in the OT but was robbed by Chicago netminder Spencer Knight.
“Yeah, he made a great save,” Pionk said. “(Mark Scheifele) made a great play. I’ve got to find a way to put it in the net. At the end of the day, that is what it is. I thought overall it was a good job for us to come back and get a point.
“But there are some things we’ll clean up in our game. Got to find a way to get those overtime wins.”
