Sharks bite Canes in OT, Raanta helps secure point

If you play with fire you’re going to get burned, and if you play ugly hockey you’re eventually going to lose a game.

The Carolina Hurricanes have been far from their best during their three-game California swing, and it finally bit them in the loss column Monday night in San Jose. The Canes fell to the Sharks 2-1 in overtime, as an off-kilter effort and nonexistent power play doomed Carolina to just its third loss of the season.

To his credit Antti Raanta was very good in Carolina’s net Monday, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced. Raanta kept the Canes in the game for a long time, and did a lot himself to earn the team its one point. It was the rest of the squad that fell flat, as Carolina couldn’t muster enough with the puck to reward Raanta fully for his efforts.

Former Hurricane James Reimer was the winning goalie in San Jose’s net, as he allowed just one second-period rocket off the stick of Tony DeAngelo past him in a 22-save effort. The Sharks got a game-tying goal from Kevin Labanc early in the third period before Alexander Barabanov won it in OT.

The opening period was a battle, as neither team was too keen to give up much in its defensive zone. Both defensive units were active and strong, with both goaltenders making a couple key saves to keep things scoreless.

In total, the Canes and Sharks combined for 27 hits and just 15 shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, with the teams combining for a whopping total of just three high-danger chances (all for San Jose). It was Raanta who had probably the biggest highlight of the period, stretching to deny a great chance by Timo Meier.

The Canes got off to a blistering start in the second period, though, controlling the puck and scoring just 1:16 in. Carolina possessed the puck in the offensive zone for quite some time, with DeAngelo guiding the play.

After the Sharks blocked a couple shot and pass attempts from the Canes, DeAngelo made a great positioning play to get the puck back, and he ripped an absolute laser beam of a slap shot through traffic and past Reimer into the net.

Things stayed relatively chippy after DeAngelo’s opener, with neither team giving much of an edge. The Sharks had a couple unfortunate breaks with pucks hitting the post, and they also got turned away by quite a few good saves from Raanta, who had a heck of a middle period.

The Canes got the first power play of the game after Seth Jarvis got pulled down behind San Jose’s net, and it was quite frankly, bad. Carolina got nothing going with the man advantage, spending a good chunk of the time chasing San Jose’s dumped pucks out of the zone.

The second period came to and with the Canes holding onto their 1-0 lead, thanks at the end to another very, very good save by Raanta in the final minute of the frame.

San Jose tied things up at 1-1 less than four minutes into the final period, as a rare misstep by Jaccob Slavin led to a goal for the Sharks. Slavin whiffed on a clearance attempt in the corner, which allowed the puck to fall to Labanc in the circle. Labanc slotted it past Raanta, tying things up with most of the third period left to play.

The Canes got another power play a few minutes after the Labanc goal, this one for too many Sharks on the ice, and it wasn’t any better than the first. Carolina never really got the puck settled with the man advantage, scrambling for most of the two minutes.

Carolina couldn’t go a full 60 minutes without taking a penalty of its own, though, as Brett Pesce got called for tripping with just 21 seconds left in the game and the score still even at 1-1.

The Canes killed off the regulation portion of the Pesce penalty, and it was Raanta who really earned the point for the Canes. Raanta turned away quite a few good scoring chances late in regulation.

Carolina technically killed off the overtime portion of the penalty as well, though San Jose scored almost immediately after things went back to even strength to win the game. Barbanov collected a rebound and slotted it calmly into an open net.

The Canes’ road trip will continue Wednesday in an exciting new adventure, as Carolina will take on the Seattle Kraken for the first time.