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The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Islanders yesterday, coming away with a 3-0 win.
The Hurricanes were without Sebastian Aho and Jesper Fast, who were dealing with injuries. As a result, they ended up going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, bringing Derek Stepan back into the lineup, along with Max Lajoie.
It wasn’t an overly eventful first period, with almost no chances exchanged at even strength and neither team capitalizing on their power play chances, as the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes.
Carolina managed to pull ahead in the second period though, as Andrei Svechnikov found Paul Stastny at the side of the net who capitalized, for his first goal with Carolina. It was another uneventful period overall, but the Hurricanes did a great job limiting chances for New York, giving up only three shots in the period.
Then four minutes into the third period, Brent Burns’ shot was tipped in by Jesperi Kotkaniemi, extending the lead. A little later, Carolina ended up causing a turnover down low and Jordan Staal managed to capitalize, taking a pass in-close to beat Ilya Sorokin. Carolina continued to completely limit chances for New York after that and took the 3-0 win.
It was a solid performance from Carolina, completely limiting offense for the Islanders and allowing just 16 shots total. Also, of those 16 shots, very few of them were high-danger opportunities.
Obviously, Pyotr Kochetkov didn’t have a ton of work, but it does mark his second shutout in just 11 games this season, as he continues to be rock solid for Carolina.
It was also really positive to see Kotkaniemi, along with Stastny (who got a chance on the top line), getting on the scoresheet. Both are having a pretty slow start to the year production-wise, so who knows, maybe they’ll be able to build a bit of momentum.
With Carolina's six-game road trip nearly over, it’s gone pretty much as well as anyone could’ve hoped for. The Hurricanes have gone 4-0-1, picking up nine of a possible 10 points, with their last game coming on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM DECEMBER
Jordan Martinook scores hat trick, Canes down Blues for third straight win
Hurricanes beat Kings for fourth straight win
Hurricanes’ four-game winning streak snapped in overtime loss to Ducks 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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