Recap: Canes dominate Blackhawks, sweep road trip

The Carolina Hurricanes made a bit of history on Tuesday night: finishing off a sweep of a three-game road trip for the first time in franchise history.

Lucas Wallmark and Nino Niederreiter recorded two points each, and Andrei Svechnikov scored his team-leading tenth goal of the season as the Hurricanes topped the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2, also recording their second straight season sweep over the Hawks in the process.

Petr Mrazek made 30 saves to earn his tenth win and improve to 10-3-1. The Canes have won four straight games overall and are now 4-4-0 in November, their second winning streak of four or more games this season.

Robin Lehner posted 29 saves in the loss. He moves to 5-4-2 on the year. Patrick Kane had two points and extended his point streak to ten games.

Martin Necas got things rolling in the first period when he scored his fifth of the year. Necas broke into the Blackhawks’ zone on a rare 2-0 rush with Niederreiter at his side. The duo exchanged the puck a few times before Necas lifted it past Lehner to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.

Svechnikov pushed the lead to two at 0:53 of the second period, squeezing a wrist shot between the arm and body of Lehner. The second-year Hurricane now stands in sole possession of the team lead in goals with ten. Svechnikov has now scored four goals in his last five games and has points in five straight.

At 11:54 of the second, the lead grew to three. Lucas Wallmark made a long pass off the boards to a streaking Niederreiter, who collected the puck and made a power move to his backhand, finishing high on the glove side.

All was seemingly in order, but halfway through the third period, the Blackhawks - and more specifically, Patrick Kane - came to life.

At 12:05 of the third, Kane found Erik Gustafsson with a snappy pass, which Gustafsson redirected past Mrazek to end the shutout. Only 1:10 later, Kane again created room for himself on the half-wall and found an open Chicago defenseman in the middle of the ice. This time it was Connor Murphy, who beat Mrazek for his first goal of the season.

Asked about the third period, Rod Brind’Amour noted the Canes had their chances, but that Kane was tough to stop, “They’ve got a pretty good player over there, and when you give him some time, he picks you apart.”

With the sellout United Center crowd re-energized, the final seven minutes saw the Canes fend off a power play and nearly two minutes of 6-on-5 hockey, before a Sebastian Aho empty-netter ended the Chicago comeback attempt.

Up Next

The Canes return home for a divisional game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.