The Carolina Hurricanes tussled with Ottawa in pressure-packed games, and played with little open ice and a growing physical testiness, to open the NHL playoffs. Years of postseason experience showed in taking a first-round sweep.
The Eastern Conference’s top seed closed out the Senators 4-2 in Saturday’s Game 4 of the best-of-7 series. It capped a series that saw Carolina’s top line and power play go quiet, along with the team spending too much time in the penalty box. Yet the Hurricanes offset that with a dominating showing from its second line of Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake; a nearly flawless penalty kill and elite goaltending from Frederik Andersen.
“Like we’ve kind of talked about all year, whatever way the game goes, our group can handle it,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour, who has won at least one postseason series in all eight of his seasons. “I didn’t love all the penalties. There’s a fine line you’ve got to try to balance. I don’t know that we did a great job there. But I loved just the compete level of our group from Game 1 all the way through. Pretty impressive.”
The Hurricanes’ playoff run under Brind’Amour goes back to an unexpected run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2019 after a nine-year postseason drought. They’ve been a postseason fixture ever since, reaching the Eastern final in two of the past three seasons, losing to Florida each time.
Notably in 2023, they lost four one-goal games to the Panthers in a series that included a four-overtime thriller, an outcome that Brind’Amour said he didn’t regard like a traditional sweep because of how tight the series was.
Fast forward three years, and the Hurricanes largely stood on the other side of that scenario. They never led by more than two goals and survived a double-overtime Game 2 before becoming the first team to never trail in a first-round series since the Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2009, according to ESPN Insights.
“For it to be this tight of a series and not go our way, every game, it’s really tough,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk told reporters after Game 4.
The Hurricanes’ experience showed in several ways as they improved to 11-5 in closeout games under Brind’Amour, winning six of their last seven.
Andersen got the call with Brind’Amour opting for the 36-year-old’s veteran presence over former waiver pickup Brandon Bussi. Andersen had an opening-game shutout on the way to stopping 105 of 110 shots (.955 save percentage) while positing a 1.10 goals-against average, and the Hurricanes needed him with Ottawa’s Linus Ullmark (.932, 2.03) looking terrific in the other crease.
The top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov managed to produce what Brind’Amour colloquially called “diddly squat” on the scoresheet. Jarvis (32) and Svechnikov (31) led the team in regular-season goals but didn’t find the net, Svechnikov didn’t tally a point, and two of Aho’s three goals were empty-net clinchers in Game 4.
But the Stankoven-Hall-Blake line more than made up for it in a reminder of Carolina’s scoring depth. Stankoven scored in all four games, including the go-ahead goal on a third-period power play in Game 4. Blake had the Game 3 winner to go with three assists, while Hall had a team-best seven points.
“I couldn’t imagine being in a better spot teamwise,” said Hall, a former Hart Trophy winner as league MVP. “Just the mix of guys that we have and having Rod as a coach has been awesome for me personally, the way he pushes buttons — it’s not really pushing buttons, but he gets the most out of his players.”
And then there was the penalty kill, which got plenty of practice.
Carolina went 20 for 21 (95.2%) in a series that got progressively chippier, notably with multiple scrums breaking out in a wild second period of Game 4. Captain Jordan Staal said the Hurricanes “probably went a little cuckoo” in responding to hard hits and getting caught up in the period’s testy vibes.
Carolina was called for eight of its 11 penalties in the second, yet the PK allowed only Drake Batherson’s tying redirect. And the Hurricanes settled down in the third with the goal of getting back to controlling 5-on-5 play, committing one penalty for too many men on the ice.
“It was a very mature third period from us,” Aho said.
As for health, winger Nikolaj Ehlers was a late scratch for Game 4 due to a lower-body injury, while defenseman Alexander Nikishin was knocked from Game 4 in the second period with a concussion on a jarring hit from Ottawa’s Tyler Kleven. With Carolina being the first playoff team to advance, the Hurricanes will have several days to regroup before facing the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh winner in Round 2.
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