Carolina Hurricanes hockey games are officially back. Well, sort of. On Tuesday night the Hurricanes hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning for their first preseason game of the year. Going into the game there were questions of who would start in the net and how the lineups were going to be. As stated during the morning skate and practice the day before, head coach Rod Brind’Amour said there will mainly be younger players along with guys looking to prove something to the coaches. Once the lineups were announced, it was certainly clear that Brind’Amour would follow through with that game plan going into the first game. In the end, the Hurricanes beat the Lightning 5-2 to claim their first win of the preseason. Despite the win from the Hurricanes, what were some takeaways from the game?
Spreading the Wealth of Scoring
For the last couple of seasons, the Hurricanes have been known for their depth scoring. Furthermore, they are known to have the scoring spread throughout the lineup to multiple players and Tuesday night’s game was no different. In the end, the Hurricanes had five different scorers on the night.
Before Carolina got their five goals, however, it was the Lightning who struck first to have the Hurricanes down late in the first period. For the first 15 minutes of the game, it was mainly back-and-forth play with players from both sides feeling each other out. Tampa Bay scored on the powerplay but their lead did not last long.
Carolina scored only eight seconds later by a professional tryout (PTO) invitee Jayden Halbgewachs. It was the quick response that the Hurricanes needed after giving up a powerplay goal. The game didn’t stay tied for long as newcomer Caleb Jones gave Carolina the lead late in the first period.
The first period finished with the Hurricanes up 2-1. The second period saw only one goal but it was an absolute rocket from returning player Tony DeAngelo. DeAngelo was brought back over the summer for his second stint with the Hurricanes. The initial shot was blocked but DeAngelo was in the right place at the right time and ripped a slapshot that found twine. The goal doubled the Hurricanes’ lead and was the lone goal of the period.
Related: Hurricanes Sign Tony DeAngelo to 1-Year Contract
Carolina in the third period extended their lead to a three-goal cushion with Noel Gunler joining the scoring party. However, the Lightning got one back from a tip-in goal from Conor Sheary. That was the last goal from Tampa Bay but it wasn’t the last goal of the game. Another PTO-invited player, Kieffer Bellows, joined the scoring barrage. After the initial shot was blocked, Bellows kept driving to the net and ended up slotting it into the net to regain the Hurricanes’ three-goal lead.
The goal from Bellows shows why players should never give up on a play. That ended up being the last goal of the game but in the end, there was a plethora of goals from the Hurricanes. As stated before, there were five different goal scorers in the way of Halbgewachs, Jones, DeAngelo, Gunler, and Bellows. Last night was a great game for the young guys especially Felix Unger-Sorem who was mentioned a ton in the broadcast by Hurricanes play-by-play announcer Mike Maniscalco. Furthermore, the PTO guys made their presence known in Halbgewachs and Bellows along with newcomers Jones and not-so-new DeAngelo.
Goaltenders Doing Their Jobs
Going into the first preseason game it was known that goaltender Frederik Andersen would start the game with Pyotr Kochetkov being his backup. The only uncertain thing was how long each goalie was going to play in the game. In the end, Andersen played 32:18 stopping 13 of 14 shots faced. Right from the start it seemed that Andersen was dialed in and stopping everything coming his way. However, he did let in a powerplay goal late in the first period but it was clear that he did not see the puck cleanly. Other than that, Andersen made stellar saves until being replaced in the second half of the first period by Kochetkov.
Kochetkov played the remaining 27:42 to secure the Hurricanes’ 5-2 win over the Lightning. Just like Andersen, Kochetkov saved 13 of the 14 shots that he faced in his time on the ice. Kochetkov was making great saves throughout the game, especially in the third period. At some point, he seemed to get bumped into by a Lightning player but seemed to bounce back well and play a solid game. The lone goal he gave up was a tip-in from a shot at the blue line that snuck past him. Both goals that Andersen and Kochetkov gave up were ones that they could do nothing about.
All in all, both goaltenders played really good games for the first preseason matchup of the season. It is still unclear who the main two goalies will be going into the season. There are still five preseason games left and the team has to give Antti Raanta and Yaniv Perets some ice time as well in the goal. However, it does make it interesting in the net for Carolina with them bringing back both Andersen and Raanta after signing Kochetkov to a four-year deal during the previous season. For the first preseason game though, both Kochetkov and Andersen played how they should have even if it was the start of preseason hockey.
What is Next for Carolina?
There is no downtime for Carolina as they will face the Florida Panthers at home on Wednesday night to finish the early back-to-back to start off the preseason. It is unclear who will be in the net or how the lineups will be set but it would make sense to see the other group make an appearance. The game will be at 7 p.m. Eastern at PNC Arena.
