Special Teams Dooms Canes' Start In Seattle

SEATTLE - Penalty troubles haunted the Carolina Hurricanes once again on Thursday, surrendering three goals on special teams in the first 22:38 minutes en route to a 7-4 loss.

Different Day, Different Game...

Hoping to carry momentum over from their four-goal third period on Tuesday night in San Jose, the Canes' aspirations were unfortunately shortlived.

Before the game could reach the midway mark of the first period, Seattle had already found twine. Beating Antti Raanta for the first of what would be four times on the evening, the goal came at even strength, but it was tipped home by Yanni Gourde, leaving the veteran netminder little chance.

The first sample of hope in the evening for Carolina came in the form of an immediate response though. Winning an offensive zone faceoff, Jordan Staal and Jaccob Slavin set up Jesper Fast for an equalizer 19 seconds later.

Then, it went downhill.

Entering the evening having taken 23 minor penalties already this season, second-most in the NHL, the parade to the penalty box both resumed and proved detrimental.

With Stefan Noesen sitting for holding, Jaden Schwartz pushed home the go-ahead goal for the Kraken.

And before Carolina could make it out of the first only trailing by one, Seattle showed that they could get it done while down a man as well. On an odd-man rush, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare put home a rebound, giving his team a 3-1 advantage.

Enter Kochetkov...

When play resumed for the second period, the Kraken picked up right where they left off.

This time with Teuvo Teravainen in the box, Vince Dunn unleashed a howitzer, ending Raanta's night. Despite allowing just one goal at even strength, the coaching staff felt that there was still time to change the momentum of the game, calling upon Pyotr Kochetkov.

Recalled just over 24 hours ago from Syracuse of the American Hockey League, #52 manned the crease for the final 37+ minutes for Carolina.

Appearing poised despite a long travel day yesterday to get to Climate Pledge Arena, Kochetkov did indeed temporarily stop the bleeding.

Third Period Comeback: Take Two?

Taking the same 4-1 score into the final frame of regulation, Rod Brind'Amour's group decided it was time to flip the switch on.

Coming out for the finish with noticeably more jump than the previous period, it didn't take long for the thought of a second consecutive comeback to come to mind.

68 seconds into the frame, Seth Jarvis found the back of the net for a third time in four periods. Depositing a sensational feed from Noesen, the tally gave Carolina a pulse.

4:46 later, Noesen did it again, this time connecting with Jesperi Kotkaniemi to make it a 4-3 game.

No Dice...

Sadly, 4-3 would be as close as Carolina could make it.

The group had one more goal in them, coming via Jarvis, but not before Seattle posted two goals just 21 seconds apart. Jared McCann just got a step on his man in the attacking zone and beat Kochetkov cross-body, and that was then followed by rookie Tye Kartye's first NHL regular-season goal.

Jarvis' tally, which gave him back-to-back multi-goal third periods, came during six-on-four play, upping his season total to six points in five games.

The Kraken would add an empty net goal for good measure to close out the night and officially put to bed Carolina's comeback bid.

They Said It

Rod Brind'Amour's thoughts after the final horn...

"We got back in the game, give the guys credit for that. But again, it's the same things. We're not sharp defensively right now. We're just taking little breathers. It's just killing us. Strange, because we've been doing this for a long time and doing it really well. This five-game segment, we don't have it figured out. We've got to get better at it. We're scoring enough and we're getting enough changes. We're going to create enough offense, but we're definitely giving up way too much."

Seth Jarvis giving his assessment of what went wrong...

"We sucked the first period and a half, basically. You can't spot a team 3-0 or 3-1 and expect to come back in this league. We've got a lot of stuff to figure out and it starts in our own end."

Jordan Staal hammering home the point that the team is not playing the way that they need to be playing right now...

"It's just become a 50/50 game, the way that we're playing.  We're just kind of hoping we're going to outscore a team, that we're going to get more chances and that we're going to beat them with our skill.  It's just not working.  It's pretty evident.  We just have to find a better recipe of grinding teams out and really play the way we're supposed to be playing.  We've seen it in spurts, but we haven't seen enough of it."

Bonus Notes

• Sebastian Aho (upper-body injury) did not play for a second consecutive game.
• Frederik Andersen (precautionary) did not dress after taking a shot to the mask Tuesday night in San Jose.

What's Next?

The Canes will fly to Colorado on Friday. They will not practice following. The team is expected to skate Saturday morning before concluding their western swing against the Avalanche.

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