Hurricanes survive wild game against Kings, improve to 14-2

If you are a fan of chaos and winnings games you probably don’t deserve to win, the Carolina Hurricanes’ matchup with the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday was the game for you.

The Canes remained perfect in game three of their six-game road trip, dethroning the Kings by a final score of 5-4.

It was a messy first period for the Hurricanes, who saw the Kings dominate the shots and scoring chances at 5-on-5, but that was easily mitigated by scoring on each of their first two shots of the game.

At the three-minute mark, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis entered the Kings’ zone on a 2-on-1, and Aho found Jarvis at the backdoor. The goal was Jarvis’ third in as many games and his fourth in nine games played in his rookie year.

The theme of the night was instant responses, and the Kings set the tone for that as they came back with a goal of their own just over 90 seconds later when Blake Lizotte netted his first goal of the season.

On the very next shift, Brady Skjei sent a long-range shot towards the Los Angeles net, and a double deflection from Jordan Martinook and Derek Stepan put the Canes back in front.

From there, the Kings got to their game and were putting a lot of pressure on Frederik Andersen and the Hurricanes defense, but they held firm until an offensive zone faceoff win directly led to Los Angeles’ second goal of the night.

Anze Kopitar won the draw cleanly to Alex Edler, and the defenseman’s seemingly harmless wrister hit off of Adrian Kempe at the top of the crease and deflected right by the outstretched glove of Andersen.

The Kings very nearly took a lead into the first intermission by way of a goal with less than a minute left in the frame, but it was quickly overturned due to Philipp Danault’s goalie interference on the play.

The Hurricanes were fortunate to escape the first 20 minutes without finding themselves behind on the scoreboard. The Kings had a 13-7 lead in shots on goal and out-chanced the Hurricanes 10-6 at 5-on-5.

Carolina managed to flip the script in the second period. In the first five minutes of the period, the Canes strung several hard-working forecheck shifts together to set the table for another go-ahead goal at 6:16.

On a very similar play to their first goal, Aho was looking to connect with Jarvis. This time, the pass got deflected before it got to Jarvis, and it ended up ricocheting off of a Los Angeles defender and by a helpless Cal Petersen.

An Alex Iafallo holding penalty two minutes later presented the Hurricanes with an opportunity to get the first multi-goal lead of the game, but Andrei Svechnikov’s turnover at the offensive blue line gave Kempe a long short-handed breakaway chance that he didn’t miss on.

He snuck the puck through the legs of Andersen, and the Hurricanes allowed their first short-handed goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later, though, the Hurricanes swarmed the front of the Los Angeles net and regained the lead. A point shot from Jaccob Slavin rattled around and off of bodies in front of the net before Jesperi Kotkaniemi corralled the puck and roofed it over a sprawling Petersen for his third goal of the season.

Carolina had a 4-3 lead, but that didn’t last long.

Brenden Lemieux did his own bit of rebound-corralling with two minutes left in the second period, using his reach to put the puck around Andersen and tie the game once again.

Again, the Hurricanes responded quickly.

86 seconds after the game-tying goal, Martin Necas went into his bag of tricks to give the Hurricanes their fifth one-goal lead of the night, and that was the one that stuck.

Necas’ highlight-reel goal made it a 5-4 game heading into the second intermission.

More goals would have been ideal for the Hurricanes, but that’s not what they got in the third period. Instead, they were on the receiving end of an onslaught of shots from the Kings from the opening puck drop.

Up by just a goal, the Hurricanes got outshot 19-2 in the third period and managed just five shot attempts as Los Angeles did everything in their power to tie the game up. Unfortunately for them, Andersen delivered another spectacular third period on this Western Conference road trip.

In the second half of the third period, Andersen made huge save after huge save, preserving a chaotic win in the City of Angels.

The final shot count was 42-20 in favor of the Kings. In the first and third periods, Los Angeles outshot Carolina by a total of 33-9.

Survive and advance.

With the win, the Hurricanes improved to 14-2-0 on the season and, for the time being, are atop the NHL standings.

The team will travel to San Jose for a date in the shark tank on Monday night before rounding out their long road trip with games in Seattle and Philadelphia this week.