Svechnikov breakout coming at right time for Hurricanes

WASHINGTON -- For a long time, Andrei Svechnikov has been the Carolina Hurricanes would-be and should-be gamebreaker.

"We say it all the time," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said of the 25-year-old. "All year we've been kind of waiting for that Andrei. And still, we got through the regular season, but it was like, you know, you watch him every night."

If you watched him during the regular season you saw Svechnikov score 20 goals in 72 games, pedestrian for a player with his skillset as a rangy 6-foot-3, 199-pound power forward who has reached the 30-goal plateau once in his seven NHL seasons.

But if you are watching now in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you might be seeing Svechnikov finally beginning to reach his potential and become the player Carolina long thought it had.

He leads the Hurricanes and is second among all playoff scorers with eight goals, one fewer than Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen, his former teammate for a flash this season.

Svechnikov scored five goals in the first round against the New Jersey Devils, including a hat trick in Game 4, and three more in the second round against the Washington Capitals, including the game-winning goals in Games 3 and 5.

Svechnikov's goal at 18:01 of the third period in Game 5 against Washington at Capital One Arena on Thursday was the difference in what became a 3-1 series-clinching win, advancing Carolina into the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three seasons.

Svechnikov got the puck back from defenseman Sean Walker and from the bottom of the right face-off circle whipped a shot into the net to give Carolina a 2-1 lead.

"I knew it's a rush opportunity for us and I knew 'Walksy' was up top," Svechnikov said. "I tried to pass it to him and he kind of give it to me back. No, I probably didn't expect (to get it back), but it was right on my stick and at that point I only had a shot."

Seth Jarvis scored an empty-net goal at 19:33 for the 3-1 final.

The Hurricanes next play the winner of the second-round series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers. Florida holds a 3-2 lead heading into Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"Just try to go out there and enjoy every game and have fun and try to help my team somehow win games," Svechnikov said. "Hopefully I'm going to continue doing that, but I'm here and I'm super excited we're going to the next round."

Svechnikov was not there with the Hurricanes the last time they reached the conference final two years ago; he was recovering from surgery he had on March 16, 2023 to repair a torn ACL in his right knee.

Carolina scored six goals in four games against Florida in that conference final, losing each game by one goal; the Hurricanes were defeated 2-1 in overtime in Game 2 following a 3-2 loss in quadruple-overtime in Game 1.

Maybe Svechnikov would have made a difference; he certainly is making one now.

In addition to his eight goals, Svechnikov is also tied for the NHL playoff lead with five shots that have hit either the post or the crossbar; the only player with that many is Los Angeles Kings forward Kevin Fiala.

Svechnikov ranks eighth in the postseason with 35 shots on goal.

"Tonight, that goal is not even great goal, but he had a lot of other ones, off the bars and posts," Brind'Amour said of Svechnikov's game-winning goal Thursday. "So I think, that one, he deserved it just from this play all series. Any team that's playing now, you've got to have your top guys going or you're not still here."

Svechnikov is and always has been one of the Hurricanes' top guys. He just hasn't always delivered consistently, until now.

He already has doubled his previous NHL career high in goals in a single postseason; he scored four in six games in 2020 and four in 14 games in 2022.

"He's just been great," Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. "There's no question about it. He's been on it every night, shooting the puck and being physical and just being hard to play against, being the playoff player we know he is. It's great to see the puck go in for him. He's going to continue to lead our group."