Martinook hat trick helps Hurricanes defeat Blues for third win in row

ST. LOUIS -- Jordan Martinook scored a hat trick to help the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-4 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

"I'm not the guy who's supposed to get them, but I'll take it," Martinook said of his second NHL hat trick.
Brent Burns had a goal and an assist, and Antti Raanta made 12 saves on 15 shots for the Hurricanes (13-6-5), who have won three in a row. Pyotr Kochetkov made 10 saves after replacing Raanta with four seconds remaining in the second period.
"It was a good game," Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. "Our 5-on-5 play was one of our better games. We stuck with our game and we ended up getting rewarded for it."

Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko had two assists, and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues (11-12-0), who have lost four of five after winning seven straight.
"We're competitive, we're in every game," St. Louis center Robert Thomas said. "Tie game with five minutes left. I thought we had a really good third period too. I thought we pressed them, had a bunch of chances, games like that are going to happen."
Buchnevich gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 12:00 of the first period with a power-play goal on a one-timer of Thomas' cross-seam pass below the left face-off circle.
Noel Acciari made it 2-0 at 2:31 of the second period when he cut into the high slot and beat Raanta.
The Hurricanes scored three straight goals over 1:04 of the second. Burns scored on the power play at 5:24 to cut it to 2-1, followed by Martinook's tying goal to make it 2-2 at 5:45. Seth Jarvis then gave Carolina a 3-2 lead at 6:28 on a shot that rode up defenseman Colton Parayko's stick.
"Sometimes, momentum builds after a power play," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We were able to snap home a couple more. That was a big part of the game obviously."

At 2-0, St. Louis felt like it had a grip on the game, but a failed clear by Thomas led to the Burns goal.
"Yeah, we did," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "We've got to get a kill there. That puck, for me, has got to be cleared when we could have done a better job probably after we didn't clear it. It's just being a little bit tighter there and not giving so much time to Burns."
St. Louis considered challenging for goaltender interference on the play but didn't when Carolina forward Andrei Svechnikov collided with Binnington at the top of the crease.
"It's close, but the guy's not skating through the crease," Berube said. "It's a tough call. We called one similar to that in Pittsburgh last year and it was overturned. It's a similar play."

Torey Krug's power-play goal at 15:55 tied it 3-3, a shot from the interior edge of the left circle under Raanta's left skate.
Martinook beat Binnington five-hole to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead at 15:25 of the third period after a turnover by Tarasenko along the right boards was picked off by Jaccob Slavin, who found Martinook.
Parayko overskated the play and Martinook's shot from the left circle caught the blade of defenseman Nick Leddy's stick before getting past Binnington.
"[I'd] seen it hop over Parayko," Martinook said. "It hopped over a stick and I had a little break. Their other D was closing quick so I just tried to get it off as quick as I could. The five-hole was the only place I could go and luckily it went in."

Staal scored into an empty net at 18:02 for a 5-3 lead.
Ryan O'Reilly made it 5-4 with 42 seconds remaining to make it 5-4, but Martinook completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with nine seconds left for the 6-4 final.
"It seems like any time we lose a game, it's usually 5-10 minutes where we give up a few chances that ultimately lead to goals, and that's what we've got to clean up," Krug said. "It's up to us to learn from those mistakes sooner than later. Otherwise, we're going to keep falling behind. We've got to make an adjustment there."
NOTES: Martinook's only other NHL hat trick came with the Arizona Coyotes on Nov. 23, 2018 in a 4-1 win against the Florida Panthers. ... Carolina has just one regulation loss in the past nine games (4-1-4). ... Jarvis has four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak. ... Buchnevich has 12 points (six goals, six assists) over the past eight games. ... Blues forward Jordan Kyrou had an assist to give him 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in the past 10 games.