Carolina Hurricanes Defeat Edmonton Oilers 5-3 to Earn First Regulation Win

The Carolina Hurricanes took the ice for only the fourth time since the season started on Tuesday night in Edmonton, the least in the league. Despite not being in a rhythm they came out quickly. Just 16 seconds into the game, Teuvo Teravainen opened the scoring off of a feed by Jaccob Slavin on a two on one.

The refs very quickly established their presence in the game and didn’t hold back. The game featured twelve penalties, seven of which went to the Oilers, and three powerplay goals, including two by the Canes. You have to hope that this will jump-start the Canes powerplay unit, which had been notably struggling early in the year but has now scored in two straight games.

Teravainen was not done scoring as he made it a 2-0 game on the Canes second powerplay just under five minutes into the game. Elias Lindholm was jealous of Teravainen’s scoring and netted his own goal on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Jordan Staal and Justin Faulk on the power play to make the game 3-0 at the first intermission.

In the second period, the Oilers tried their best to battle back as Mark Letestu scored his first on the season, also on the power play to make the game 3-1. Edmonton-area native Cam Ward, making his first start of the season, thought he covered the puck, freezing the defense and allowing Letestu to pound the puck home in the crease.

In the third period, Justin Faulk took a tripping penalty that temporarily sent Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the locker room. The Canes didn’t mind, because on the ensuing power play, Jordan Staal recorded the Canes’ first short-handed goal of the season. Unfortunately for the visitors, Ryan Strome was able to redirect a shot from former Cane Jussi Jokinen just befo Faulk’s penalty expired to pull the Oilers back to within two goals.

Milan Lucic gave Canes fans heartburn later in the third, making it 4-3 with over 11 minutes left with a rather weak goal due to misplays by both Justin Faulk and Cam Ward. Despite a very hard late Oilers push, Slavin scored a highlight-reel backhander to cap off a sterling performance, securing the Canes win and giving a 5-3 lead.

Slavin was able to neutralize Connor McDavid all night. Whenever McDavid was wheeling and dealing, Slavin was there to shut him down, in a truly impressive performance. On top of his defensive performance, he was able to retake the momentum for the Canes by scoring the late goal.

The Canes head now to Calgary for a Thursday matchup with the Flames.

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