Carolina saw its eight-game point streak come to an end in PNC Arena on Monday, falling to the Kings 5-2 in the Hurricanes Hall of Fame game. Justin Williams, who won three Stanley Cups with the Canes and Kings, was inducted as the fifth member of Hurricanes Hall of Fame prior to the game.
“The best thing about it is there’s a history,” Williams said. “That’s the best part about it now. When the team first came here, it was ‘be the history.’ Now you want to be part of history. That really says a lot about hockey here in North Carolina.”
The Canes (24-14-5) couldn’t get it done with Mr. Game 7 in attendance, however, nixed by a nightmare start to the third period. Carolina began the third with 52 seconds left on the penalty kill, which discombobulated the Hurricanes’ execution even after returning to 5 on 5.
Phillip Danault pulled Los Angeles (21-11-8) ahead mere seconds after Jesperi Kotkaniemi returned from the penalty box. Two more Kings goals in the following four minutes and changed turned the game on its ear, putting Carolina in a sudden 4-1 hole from which it would not recover.
“That was the game,” said Rod Brind’Amour. “It was the penalty there at the end of the second. Even though it wasn’t a power play goal, they got in on it. We were trying to recover and that’s what got them the goal. A weird bounce off the boards. That’s where the momentum flipped.”
The Hurricanes’ recent power play struggles also marred its Monday matinee matchup. The unit went 0 for 4 against Los Angeles, extending its recent cold streak to 1 goal in the last 10 opportunities. The last shift showed some promise, but overall the Canes kept trying to do too much instead of seizing the opportunities they got against the league’s second-best PK unit.
“We had some good looks,” Brind’Amour said. “Their goalie made some good saves. Then we got away from it. We tried to do some other things instead of getting what was there. We would have been able to keep firing pucks. They were blocking some, that’s what they’re giving you. They’re tight in there. You got to keep shooting. We got off it a little bit.”
It’s easy to point to the goalie when your team gives up five goals, but the tape clears Antti Raanta from bearing the brunt of the blame. The Kings’ first two goals came on wide-angle shots off rebounds on poor puck luck that Raanta simply stood no chance against. Though Alex Laferriere’s goal to make it 3-1 simply beat Raanta to the top corner, another shoddy showing by the Canes defense caused the fourth goal more so than a hypothetical goaltending mistake.
An empty netter in the waning minutes rounded out Carolina’s goal against, for what it’s worth.
Perhaps the main silver lining of the night also occurred between the pipes. Brind’Amour pulled Raanta in favor of rookie Yaniv Perets for the final 14:40, marking the 23 year old’s NHL debut. He made the most of his lone save of the night, stonewalling Pierre-Luc Dubois on a odd man rush for the Kings.
He returned to the bench for the final couple minutes as Carolina elected to start a late power play with an extra attacker, but the brief time under the NHL lights made its mark on Perets.
“It’s all a blur,” Perets said. “It’s a smile on my face, looking up in the stands and seeing a beautiful crowd, a beautiful atmosphere. It’s the moment that you dream of as a kid.”
The Canes will hope to return to the win column in game five of their six-game homestand Friday when they host the Red Wings. Puck drops at 7 p.m.