Hurricanes strive to bolster lead over Penguins in Metropolitan
The Carolina Hurricanes have won three of their last four games heading into Sunday afternoon's Metropolitan Division contest against the host Pittsburgh Penguins.
The past two wins have come in overtime, with the most recent a 4-3 road victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. Defenseman Alexander Nikishin scored 41 seconds into the extra session to lift the Hurricanes (44-19-6, 94 points) over the Maple Leafs.
"‘Nikky' has been great," Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. "As a rookie defenseman, it's not easy. Especially a rookie defenseman, a Russian who doesn't speak very good English, he's stepped in and played really well for us. He's learned a lot and learned quickly and obviously as you can tell, he's got a cannon of a shot, and it can go in at any moment, and he's chipped in a lot of different ways this year. He's only going to get better."
It was Nikishin's 10th goal of the season to go with 17 assists in 68 games.
Staal, Eric Robinson (penalty shot) and defenseman K'Andre Miller also scored for the Hurricanes. Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis each notched two assists and Brandon Bussi made 23 saves.
"I thought we were OK tonight," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "If you look at the bulk of the game, we had quite a few opportunities and just didn't cash in. I thought they got a couple ones you'd like to have back obviously, but I liked the fact we just kept going even though there were some of those ones where you say, ‘Jeez, maybe that shouldn't have happened.' But all in all, it's two points and you move on."
Carolina is first place in the Metropolitan, eight points ahead of the Penguins (35-18-16, 86 points), who extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1) with a 5-4 shootout win over the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson scored twice on Saturday to give him 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his last four games. Karlsson's second goal tied the game with 7:15 left in regulation. He also has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 11 games in March.
"I think our entire game this time of the year, you need a lot of experience," Karlsson said. "I think we have a lot of that in this room. Even today when, at times, we didn't play our best hockey, we gave up a lot of chances. But again, I felt like there wasn't any panic.
"We stuck with it, trusted the process. ... I think today was an experienced win for us, not necessarily our best game."
Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse praised the star veteran defenseman.
"(Karlsson) has taken it to another level, he really has," Muse said. "It's been incredible to watch. ... You get to this time of the year, everything's elevated. He's been great all year. When it's getting harder and it's getting tighter, he just keeps finding a way to elevate his game."
Penguins superstar captain Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell scored in the shootout Saturday.
Egor Chinakhov and Rakell also scored in regulation while Bryan Rust had two assists in his 700th game.