The Carolina Hurricanes look to inch closer to clinching their second straight Metropolitan Division title when they begin a three-game road trip on Thursday against the Nashville Predators.
The Hurricanes (50-18-9, 109 points) have won three in a row to build a three-point lead over the second-place New Jersey Devils in the division.
Martin Necas scored his franchise-best fourth overtime goal of the season in a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.
“His skill set is uniquely crafted for open ice,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Necas, who has totaled career highs in goals (28), assists (41) and points (69) this season.
“He’s got a lot of speed and he’s got a good shot, so you give him more room, and he can wind it up. … He’s got a flair for the dramatic, that’s for sure.”
Antti Raanta made 26 saves to extend his winning streak to eight games and his franchise-record point streak to 17 (15-0-2).
“It’s a good thing to get a win and help the team get two points. That’s obviously the main goal for the rest of the way,” Raanta said.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored his second goal in as many games and added an assist on Tuesday to boost his point total to a career-high 39 (16 goals, 23 assists) this season.
Like Kotkaniemi, defenseman Brady Skjei also scored and set up a goal on Tuesday. Skjei, who has a career-high 18 goals, also tallied in Carolina’s 5-3 loss to Nashville on Jan. 5 in a game best remembered for Juuse Saros’ franchise-record 64-save performance.
Saros is expected to be back in net versus the Hurricanes after getting the night off in the Predators’ 3-2 overtime victory versus the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.
Tommy Novak scored twice in the first period and set up Cody Glass’ power-play goal in overtime for Nashville (39-30-8, 86 points), which resides three points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference entering play on Wednesday.
“We know we have to win a lot of hockey games to stay in it,” said Novak, who has erupted for 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists) in 46 games since being recalled from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League on Dec. 19.
“We’ve done a pretty good job so far, so hopefully we can keep it going. We’ve kind of had that mindset for a while now.”
Glass’ goal — his fourth in his last six games — came as a result of the puck deflecting off the skate of Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb and past goaltender Jonathan Quick.
“We’ll take that,” Glass said. “I was happy it went in. We stuck with it and got a win, so it was huge.”
Glass was one of five different Predators goal-scorers in the first encounter with the Hurricanes.
Despite his sterling performance in the previous meeting with Carolina, Saros is just 2-7-1 with a 2.76 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 13 contests versus the Hurricanes.
–Field Level Media