Hurricanes' slump continues: Oilers grind down Canes to snap a 5-game losing streak

Chip Alexander, The News & Observer on Mar 1, 2025

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — The man who broke America’s heart was in the building Saturday.

That would be Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, and he brought a desperate team with him to the Lenovo Center to take on the Carolina Hurricanes.

Adam Henrique scored shorthanded and Corey Perry and Evan Bouchard added goals to support goalie Calvin Pickard as the Oilers left with a hard-earned 3-1 victory.

The Hurricanes finally beat Pickard with a power-play goal by Sebastian Aho at 4:26 of the third period, but the Oilers held on to end a five-game losing skid.

“That (stank). I had the game on my stick, with a chance to force (overtime),” Aho said. “We were right there and had plenty of chances at the end to tie the game force the OT but ...”

McDavid was the guy who scored the winning goal in the 4 Nations Face-Off for Team Canada, winning an overtime battle with Team USA in the international event’s championship game. The Canadian team, which included the Canes’ Seth Jarvis, left Boston with the gold medals and all the smiles.

It was back to business after that and the Oilers came to Raleigh riding the losing streak, the last four on the road. For the Canes (34-22-4), the game was two days after all the fun and excitement of Whalers Night and a 5-2 home-ice win over the Buffalo Sabres that softened the sting of losing five of six.

Pickard would be the one who left the Canes dejected Saturday, making some big stops in the third period with the Canes stressing to tie the score. The biggest of his 35 saves: a pad stop on Aho’s shorthanded breakaway with 47.6 seconds left in regulation.

“Right there was your chance,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “To get a breakaway, that’s all you can ask. Their goalie made a nice save. That’s the game right there.”

Bouchard had an empty-net goal with one second left for the Oilers (35-21-4), Leon Draisaitl picking up a second assist.

The veteran goalie has had success against Carolina in the past — he was 3-0-1 with a 1.08 goals-against average and .962 save percentage in his career before Saturday. He also had won 14 games this season.

The Canes went with Frederik Andersen, who also had some spiffy goaltending numbers against the Oilers in his career: an 18-2-2 record, 2.27 GAA and .925 save percentage.

The Canes had their chances in the first to make their opponent chase the game. But the first of three power plays in the period for Carolina had Henrique, an old Canes nemesis, break in for his shorthanded score – Henrique’s 14th career goal against Carolina.

The Canes butchered their zone entries on the three power plays and generated little as the Oilers’ penalty killers had the quicker sticks to keep the Canes away from the crease and Henrique scored.

“The start wasn’t good, obviously,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Giving up the ‘shorty,’ you’re not going to recover from that too often and that got us tonight.”

Carolina had a final power play in the third period but could not tie the score.

Perry, taking a nice backhanded pass from Draisailt, made it 2-0 in the second after the Canes had more zone time and put more pressure on Pickard. Jordan Staal’s line, with Jarvis and Jordan Martinook on the wings, had some strong shifts and Martinook just missed on a shot that hit the post.

Andersen had done his part with some scrambling play in net to keep it a 1-0 game. Losing his stick during one scramble, he flopped about the crease and made two stops.

But Perry’s goal, his 13th of the season, left the Canes in a 2-0 hole with a period to play.

Brind’Amour stuck with his lines from the Sabres win, again having Aho center wingers Mikko Rantanen and Andrei Svechnikov. The production 5-on-5 was not there this night from the Canes top line, but Aho scored on the power play off a Rantanen pass.

Andersen, playing his 11th game of the season, made a good one-one-stop against McDavid in the second and another good one on McDavid in the third. But he couldn’t get enough offensive support in losing his second game since the 4 Nations break.

The Oilers had one goal waved off in the third, and Canes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere made a hustling play to deny another Oilers score in the third. Gostisbehere also picked up his 400th NHL point in the game on the Aho goal.

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