Hurricanes’ top line confident ‘offense will come’ in Eastern 2nd Round

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes have reached the Eastern Conference Second Round, still awaiting their next opponent, despite receiving little offense from their most productive line during the regular season.

Sebastian Aho finished with three goals, including two empty-net goals in Game 4, during Carolina’s first-round sweep of the Ottawa Senators. Seth Jarvis assisted on each of those empty-net goals, his only points in the series. Andrei Svechnikov had 18 shots on goal but was held off the score sheet throughout.

“That last game, they were great,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said, referring to the Hurricanes’ 4-2 win in Game 4 on Saturday. “In the third period, they were all over it. You watch that whole third period, it was just chance after chance. They took over that game for us at the right time.”

Carolina will play the winner of the first-round series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, which the Flyers lead 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, SN-PIT, truTV, TNT, NBCSP, SN360, TVAS). In the meantime, the Hurricanes’ top line feels energized by its play in the first round, when it was usually matched against Ottawa’s line of Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Claude Giroux.

Stutzle, who led the Senators with 83 points (34 goals, 49 assists) in 80 regular-season games, was limited to one assist in the series.

“That was something where we were struggling a little bit in the regular season, so it was nice to have that part of our game going and being responsible,” Jarvis said. “The offense will come, but to be able to shore up our defensive side of the game was huge.”

The three expect to provide more offense in the second round, regardless of opponent. They combined for nine shots on goal (including five from Aho) and 20 shot attempts in Game 4.

“I thought we played good,” Svechnikov said. “We tried to find those good moments in the offensive zone. I thought I had some good looks, some good moments creating as well.”

Chemistry certainly isn’t an issue, considering Aho, Svechnikov and Jarvis have played together all season. Aho led the Hurricanes with 80 points (27 goals, 53 assists) in 79 games; Svechnikov had a career-high 70 points (31 goals, 39 assists) in 79 games; and Jarvis has 66 points (32 goals, 34 assists) in 71 games.

For Brind’Amour, the line’s offensive production simply isn’t a worry.

“Just to make it as obvious as it sounds, if you give up a goal, you’ve got to get two,” he said. “If you give up none, you’ve just got to get the one. So, if you think of it that way, that top line was going against their top line, and they both kind of cancelled each other out. And that’s OK, as long as we get contributions from somewhere else.”

The Hurricanes relied on Logan Stankoven’s line to continue a streak that has carried over from the regular season. Taylor Hall had a team-high seven points (two goals, five assists) and was plus-5, Stankoven scored in each game of the series and Jackson Blake had four points (one goal, three assists) against the Senators.

Having Stankoven’s line putting up points took a bit of pressure off Aho’s group. Stankoven, 23, scored seven goals in Carolina’s last nine regular-season games.

“When you are playing with the lead, you don’t have to push it,” Aho said. “When you’re down two goals, maybe you sniff here or there to create that offense. We did a solid enough job to stay on top of every game.

“That’s our mindset. We don’t want to give them anything easy. We know if we stick with that, we’re going to have enough chances.”