Recap: Canes Outdueled In Ottawa

RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes struck first on Sunday, but the Ottawa Senators roared back to take a 6-3 victory at Canadian Tire Centre.

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A potential playoff preview looked the part from puck drop as both teams traded punches in the early going. When Logan Stankoven put away a rebound on the power play to nudge the Canes ahead first, the Senators responded with two tucks of their own in the next 3:29 to steal the lead.

But as time wound down in the first frame, a persistent Andrei Svechnikov knotted things up just before the buzzer, poking home a loose puck in the crease as Linus Ullmark scrambled to cover.

The latter 40 minutes, however, largely belonged to the home club. Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk scored his first of two on the night to retake the lead in the second period, before he and Shane Pinto tacked on a goal apiece in the third period to stretch their team's advantage to three.

Taylor Hall gave the Canes late life with 2:30 to play, but the comeback was not to be as an Ottawa empty-netter sealed its victory. 

Frederik Andersen finished with 26 saves on 31 shots during his 33rd appearance this season.

Stats & Standouts

• Nikolaj Ehlers picked up an assist to reach 65 points, his most in a single season during his 11-year career. His 41 helpers on the year are also a career high, and his 24 goals are five shy of his single-season best (29), set in 2017-18.
• Taylor Hall scored his 300th career goal, becoming the sixth member of the 2010 NHL Draft class to do so. He's also the ninth active first-overall pick to reach that milestone.
• Recording an assist on Hall's goal, Sean Walker reached 100 helpers in his NHL career, 30 of which have come with Carolina over the last two seasons.
• Logan Stankoven potted his fourth goal in his last four games and extended his point streak (4G, 1A) to the same duration. The goal marks his 38th point of the season, matching last season's total. 
• Andrei Svechnikov's goal pushed his point streak to five games (4G, 2A) and nudged him to within one of his second career 30-goal campaign.

They Said It...

Rod Brind’Amour describing the effort…

“Pretty flat and just doing things that you’re not going to win [doing]. [We were not] winning any 50-50 pucks and faceoffs were terrible. We (didn't) start with the puck, bad pinches, bad penalties, the list goes on and on. And yet somehow we were still in the game there for a while. It was not a good night for us.”

Taylor Hall describing the difference in the game...

"Execution. That's a tough back-to-back to come into. They played yesterday, but they played early. That's hockey. Montreal came in with kind of the same schedule and beat us at home. There's some things to take away from it. That's a playoff team. I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs, but that's a team that plays playoff hockey. It's a good test for what we're going to see. They have that desperation, and we're going to have to match that in a couple of weeks."

Rod Brind’Amour on the Hall-Stankoven-Blake line, after two of them scored today…

“That line’s been the one bright spot all year, really. They’ve never really come off it. They’ve been pretty solid, and he was good again. Hallsy gave us a goal too at the end, not giving up. But we can’t win with just one line. We need to have other contributors, and we didn’t have that tonight.”

Taylor Hall on scoring his 300th NHL goal…

“It’s nice. This is the closest arena to my hometown. My dad was here. Result excluded, it’s nice to score that. I haven’t been scoring a ton lately. Our line’s been playing well, and our line is going to be a big key moving forward. We all have to chip in, so it was nice to do that tonight.”

What's Next?

The Canes are scheduled to be off on Monday before taking on the Bruins at Lenovo Center on Tuesday.

Next Game: Tuesday, April 7 vs. Boston | 7:00 p.m. ET | FDSNSO | Tickets | Parking