Brady Skjei, Jalen Chatfield and Martin Necas all had a goal and an assist and the Carolina Hurricanes finally got clicking in a 5-2 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night at Raleigh, N.C.
Brent Burns and Teuvo Teravainen also scored for Carolina, which received two assists from Andrei Svechnikov. Frederik Andersen made 29 saves.
Carolina didn’t have a goal in the first 29 minutes, then racked up five in the next 16 1/2 minutes. The Hurricanes won for only the third time in their last eight games, yet they’re atop the Metropolitan Division.
The Wild, which had a three-game winning streak snapped, had the game’s first and final goals with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy scoring.
Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots.
Carolina went 0-for-3 on first-period power plays as neither team scored in the period.
Kaprizov opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:11 of the second period. It was his team-high 26th goal of the season.
Then the Hurricanes took over, beginning with defensemen — Burns and Skjei — continuing a recent Carolina trend of scoring from blue liners.
Burns produced his seventh goal at 9:07 of the second, with Skjei’s career-best 10th goal coming at 13:33 on a power play.
Teravainen gave the Hurricanes a short-handed goal at 17:22 of the second. It was his fourth tally of the season.
Chatfield added to the theme of defensemen scoring by opening the third-period production with his fifth of the season at 2:13. Necas posted his 18th of the season at 5:27.
Boldy’s 13th goal came with 12:39 to play, but it didn’t spark a Wild comeback. With the score 5-2, Minnesota went on two power plays that didn’t result in a goal.
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal was back in action following a one-game absence for personal reasons. He won five of eight faceoffs across the first two periods.
Carolina and Minnesota split two games, with the Wild winning in overtime in November.
–Field Level Media