Recap and Ranker: Hurricanes emerge victorious with high-flying effort in Toronto

The Carolina Hurricanes entered the Air Canada Centre on Thursday, the first of two trips to Toronto this season, seeking to get back on track following back-to-back regulation losses for the first time this season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. With a tremendous offensive effort from all four lines, the Canes prevailed on the road for the third time in the young season, winning by the score of 6-3 and pushing their record to 4-3-1.

The young, speedy talent that each team possesses was on full display, as the Canes were able to get going first with a quick start with early goals from Josh Jooris and Teuvo Teravainen inside the first 3 minutes.

The Leafs finally tallied midway through the period as American prodigy Auston Matthews snapped a wrister past Scott Darling to cut the lead to 2-1. Late in the 1st period, the Canes pushed their lead back to two as Elias Lindholm provided a strong net-front presence and deflected a Sebastian Aho one-timer from the point, making the score 3-1 after one period.

In the second period, the Leafs stormed right back as the up and down pace continued. Within the first eight minutes of the period, goals from Dominic Moore and Zach Hyman knotted the contest at 3-3. The Canes were able to escape the period with a lead, however, as Victor Rask roofed a one-timer on a nice feed from Teravainen with just over seven minutes left in the period to provide the final scoring of the period and make the score 4-3 Carolina.

Early in the third period, Brett Pesce made his way to the penalty box following a delay of game penalty, setting up a crucial penalty kill for the Canes. However, on the initial faceoff of the penalty kill, the Leafs were called for a faceoff violation, sending the Leafs to the box and negating the power play. After even play during four-on-four, the Hurricanes began to assert themselves and just over halfway through the period, Brock McGinn cashed in on the hard work as he slung home a wrister on a two-on-one break to make the score 5-3.

To put the finishing touches on a quality performance on the road, Jeff Skinner finished off a tremendous shift with a beautiful move out of the corner and into the middle of the ice to provide a backhanded dish to Jooris. He made no mistake in netting his second goal of the evening to make the score 6-3 with just over seven and a half minutes to play, to provide the final scoring of the night.

The contributions offensively throughout the Canes’ lineup were a welcome sight for a team that has had trouble lighting the lamp at times. In order to be the type of team they envision, the collective offensive efforts must become the rule rather than the exception.

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