The Carolina Hurricanes, who strengthened a lot at the NHL transfer deadline, claimed a 4–2 victory over the New Jersey Devils thanks to their Finnish players.
Czech striker Martin Necas started the scoring in Newark’s night by shooting the puck into the Devils’ goal Teuvo Teräväinen and by Stefan Noesen accompanying.
In the second set, the Swiss captain of the hosts Niko Hischier leveled the match at 1–1.
In the last set, the Porila striker of the away team Jesperi Kotkaniemi received the puck in Carolina’s offensive end and decided to try a surprising solution from a small angle – it paid off. The Finnish striker’s shot sank into the back top corner past the bewildered Devils goalkeeper By Nico Daws.
Kotkaniemi, who scored his 11th goal of the season, only got eight minutes of ice time in the match.
In the last two minutes of the match, the home team Devils played without a goalkeeper.
However, this backfired when Carolinan Andrei Svetshnikov placed the puck into the void from Teräväinen’s brilliant “spin-o-rama pass”.
After this, the home team Timo Meier reduced the situation to 3–2, until Teräväinen himself nailed into the empty goal the final score of the match 2–4 for the visiting team.
The hit was Teräväinen’s 20th of the season. It is the fourth time he has crossed the 20-goal mark in his career.
The 29-year-old gambler is now also on a six-game point streak. Teräväinen has hit 3+5=8 in them.
Sebastian Aho played the most of Carolina’s forwards, over 20 minutes.
On the other side of the match, the second Porila attacker Erik Haula collected a good 16 minutes of ice time, once sitting on the ice bench.
Kotkaniemi told after the match in the interview about his team’s recent success.
– We rely on our defense every night. We will try to get a couple of goals with the upper hand and take advantage of our situation, but defense is the beginning of everything. We try to play tight in our own and that has been the key to our wins lately.
Acquired into the team at the transfer limit from the Washington Capitals Yevgeny Kuznetsov played in the foursome together with Kotkaniemi and Jesper Fastin with. Kuznetsov was left without power points in the match, but convinced Kotkaniemi with his playing skills.
– I knew he was a great player, but those passing skills… I didn’t know he was that good. He created places out of nothing. It was great, Kotkaniemi said In an interview with NHL.
Carolina is fourth in the Eastern Conference with less than 20 regular season games left. The Devils, on the other hand, are seven places lower in 11th place and the team has lost four of their last five matches.
Mikael Granlund effective in his celebration match
Finnish striker Mikael Granlund collected two assists as the San Jose Sharks celebrated a 2–1 home victory over the Ottawa Senators. Sharks scored both goals with superiority Thomas Bordeleau.
Granlund has accumulated 9+31 performances this season, when he has 50 matches on his account.
At the same time, Granlund broke a handsome tie, as he has played 800 games in the NHL regular season in his career. Granlund has collected 154+370=524 power points in the regular season matches he has played.
The 23-year-old Swede who blocked San Jose’s goal Magnus Chrona picked up the opening win of his NHL career with 31 saves.
The Finnish keeper in Ottawa’s goal Joonas Korpisalo made 19 total saves.
At the same time, the Sharks ended their nine-game losing streak. After the match, Bordeleau especially praised Granlund’s assist in the winning goal.
– It was a great pass from Granlund. “I saw him looking for an option, I just tried to be playable for him and ready to shoot,” Bordeleau said on the NHL website.
Kako’s eighth goal of the season
The St. Louis Blues were the guests of the New York Rangers in the NHL round of the night. The home team Rangers won the match clearly with a score of 4–0.
The opening goal was scored at six minutes into the game and with the upper hand Vincent Trocheck by Artemi Panarin and by Adam Fox preliminary work.
When Jimmy Vesey and Chris Kreider still hit, was the Finnish striker Kaapo Kako turn to wave the Blues’ goal nets.
The second was overwhelmingly free by Jordan Binnington in front of the guarded Blues goal and the swedish defender flashed by Erik Gustafsson a shot sent from the blue line from the return puck to the puck goal.
The goal was the eighth of the season for the 23-year-old Finn. At the same time, Kakko broke his six-match scoreless streak.
With the win, the Rangers secured their position as third in the Eastern Conference. St. Louis, on the other hand, is 11th in the Western Conference.
Winning goal for Barkov
Finnish captain of the Florida Panthers Alexander Barkov scored the game-winning goal in his team’s 2–1 home win against the Calgary Flames. Florida eventually won the match with a score of 5–1.
The top scorer of the match had only played his second match in Florida’s shirt Vladimir Tarasenko in effect 2+1.
Tarasenko’s first goal in a Panthers jersey came in the first seconds of the second period, when the 32-year-old forward intercepted a Calgary pass at the defensive end and completed the opening goal of the match.
Calgary equalized five minutes later with a power play, but Florida took the lead again just moments after the equalizer. Barkov finished off the attack that started with Tarasenko’s opening.
By the end of the second period, Florida had already taken a 4–1 lead by Sam Bennett with the goal and Tarasenko’s second hit.
The only hit of the last period came in Calgary’s net with an underpowered effort. Cut off the feed in the middle area Eetu Luostarinen launched by Kevin Stenlund the attack that led to the goal. Luostarinen scored an assist in the situation.
Florida is the top team in the Eastern Conference by one point over Boston. Galgary is ninth in the Western Conference, and as the third team in the wild card position.
You can see the NHL standings at this link.
Boston–Pittsburgh 5–1 (0–0, 3–0, 2–1)
Florida–Calgary 5–1 (0–0, 4–1, 1–0)
F: Eetu Luostarinen 0+1, Aleksander Barkov 1+0
Montreal–Toronto 2–3 (1–0, 0–2, 1–1)
San Jose–Ottawa 2–1 (1–0, 1–1, 0–0)
S: Mikael Granlund 0+2
O: Joonas Korpisalo 19/21 saves
Tampa Bay–Philadelphia 7–0 (4–0, 1–0, 2–0)
Washington–Chicago 4–1 (3–0, 1–0, 0–1)
New Jersey–Carolina 2–4 (0–1, 1–0, 1–3)
C: Teuvo Teräväinen 1+2, Jesperi Kotkaniemi 1+0
Vancouver–Winnipeg 5–0 (3–0, 1–0, 1–0)
Las Vegas–Detroit 5–3 (2–1, 0–0, 3–2)
Los Angeles–Dallas 1–4 (1–0, 0–2, 0–2)
D: Esa Lindell 0+1
Buffalo–Edmonton vl. 3–2 (1–2, 0–0, 1–0, 0–0, 1–0)
B: Uko-Pekka Luukkonen 30/32 saves
Columbus–Nashville 1–2 (0–1, 1–0, 0–1)
N: Kevin Lankinen 32/33 saves
NY Rangers–St. Louis 4-0 (2–0, 0–0, 2–0)
N: Kaapo Kakko 1+0
STT Sports, Sports
Story edited at 10:32. Mikael Granlund’s share added.