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The Carolina Hurricanes dropped their second game in a row yesterday afternoon, falling 4-3 to the Buffalo Sabres.
Stefan Noesen was unavailable for the Hurricanes with a lower-body injury, with Paul Stastny drawing back in for him. Meanwhile, Antti Raanta got the start.
Carolina found themselves down early, with a goal from Casey Mittelstadt coming only four minutes into the game. However, the Hurricanes did go on to outshoot Buffalo 12-6 through the frame and late in the period, Seth Jarvis got the goal back for Carolina with about five minutes left, after his pass in-close bounced back to him in front of the net and he beat Devon Levi. Then only 22 seconds later, Jordan Staal found Jesper Fast in front, and Fast was able to put Carolina ahead.
However, the Sabres did tie the game on a power play early in the second period off a point shot from Rasmus Dahlin. Then while Sebastian Aho reinstated the lead off a nice pass from Teuvo Teravainen midway through the frame, Ramus Dahlin put together a series of great moves to get to the front of the net, before finding Mittelstadt for a tap-in with under two minutes to go in the period, tying the game.
Carolina began the third period with some excellent chances around the net, but just weren’t able to convert. Then six minutes into the period, Tage Thompson one-timed a shot past Raanta to put Buffalo back ahead. The Hurricanes did manage 12 shots in the frame and had a late power play chance to tie it, but couldn’t convert and fell 4-3.
It seems like this is the case with just about every loss at this point, but once again, the Hurricanes had their chances and once again, they just couldn’t convert. Credit to the Sabres, as it was a relatively even contest, but the difference was simply that Buffalo capitalized on opportunities, while the Hurricanes failed to convert on several great chances around the net.
So despite a brief three-game winning streak to begin the month, the Hurricanes haven't been able to build any momentum from it. Over their last 16 games, Carolina holds a 7-8-1 record and has been shut out in four of those games. It marks the eighth game in a row where the Hurricanes have scored three goals or less. While you can certainly win games with three goals, the team really hasn’t been able to count on their offense consistently.
Meanwhile, I've been higher on Raanta than Frederik Andersen as of late and while Raanta didn't necessarily allow bad goals, the Sabres got the better goaltending. So right now, neither goalie is really emerging as the clear go-to netminder and deciding on a Game 1 starter is going to be interesting.
The great news for the Hurricanes though: the New Jersey Devils also lost their game yesterday against the Boston Bruins. As a result, the Hurricanes maintain their lead in the Metropolitan Division, with 109 points and three games left. The Devils now have only two games left, and sit at 108 points.
Carolina’s final three games will come with a back-to-back set against the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings on Monday/Tuesday, before their final game of the season, which will be a road matchup against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
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OTHER ARTICLES FROM APRIL
Hurricanes sweep weekend back-to-back, closing in on Metro Division title
Hurricanes blow lead against Senators, rebound for overtime win
Hurricanes shut out by Predators as lack of scoring remains an issue 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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