Game One Recap - Hurricanes 5, Senators 3

The long awaited and anticipated season opener finally came to the PNC Arena on Wednesday night and the Hurricanes responded with a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

The home team had well balanced scoring with five different goal scorers and twelve different players with points.

It took them a bit to get going though as the visitors had the better play in the first period while taking a 1-0 lead.

The Canes would tie the game 2:55 into the second period when newcomer Michael Bunting took a pass in front of the net and skated patiently across the crease as he beat Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

It was Bunting’s first goal as a Hurricane. Better yet, it was a powerplay goal.

Toward the end of the period, Teuvo Teravainen found an opening and made the score 2-1 with a shot from near the slot area. That score would hold up until intermission as the Hurricanes had taken over the game. They doubled up the Sens with 18 shots on goal that period to the visitor’s nine.

The third period started out well enough. Captain Jordan Staal scored from inside just 20 seconds in.

Ottawa would tie the score again though as they scored twice, just 35 seconds apart at 5:14 and 5:49.

But the Canes would take over again as Brady Skjei scored to give Carolina back the lead.

Jaccob Slavin would add an insurance goal with a pretty shot from close in on a short-handed opportunity. Jesperi Kotkaniemi had a nice set up on the play.

Carolina will now go on a long, difficult road trip as they avoid the state fair traffic. Next up will be the Kings on Saturday and Ducks on Sunday.

Game Notes:

• Brind’Amour went with seven defensemen and 11 forwards again, like he did the last preseason game. Brendan Lemieux was the scratch. It is not easy to manage seven blueliners though and Jalen Chatfield was the odd man out with only 4:39 and seven shifts of ice time.
• Dmitry Orlov’s first game for the Canes probably could have gone better but he did lead the team with three blocked shots and also had three hits, good for second best. He was a -2 as well.
• Seth Jarvis had a team high seven hits and also led the team with 21:49 of ice time. Brent Burns was next highest at 20:59.
• The team finished with 42 shots on goal led by Jesper Fast with five. Fast also was awarded a rare penalty shot in the first period but was stopped by Korpisalo.
• While it seemed like the ref situation was a bit whacky at times, the Canes were called for five penalties for 10 minutes while the Sens were called seven times for a total of 14 minutes in the sin bin.