Pyotr Kochetkov made 27 saves for the Hurricanes (32-18-4), who have lost two straight after earning a point in their previous seven (6-0-1).
“I mean, they got two on the power (play). We didn't get any,” said Carolina forward Sebastian Aho, who will represent Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20. “The first one, goalie [interference] and all kinds of stuff, so I don't know. I feel like, yeah, special teams for sure cost us the game. It’s a tough loss. But 5-on-5 — that's a good team, they don't give up too much, but we had our looks for sure [and] enough chances to win the hockey game. But obviously we're not able to cash in and that’s kind of been the trend as of late here. It’s got to be better.”
Carolina appeared to take a 1-0 lead when it scored on the power play at 15:37 of the first period, but Winnipeg challenged for goaltender interference, and the call was reversed following a video review.
“It definitely changes, not the outcome, but the outlook of the game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “If it goes in, we’re up one, we’re feeling pretty good. But obviously, we know how those go. Sometimes you win them, sometimes you don’t.”
Niederreiter then gave the Jets a 1-0 lead on the power play at 19:18 of the first when Alex Iafallo’s cross-slot pass set him up for a one-timer from the bottom of the circle.
“This was one of [Niederreiter’s] better games,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “He's played some good ones, some strong ones, but I thought tonight in all areas… His wall battles, when he's really on his game, he wins those whether it's on the breakouts or whether it's on the offensive side. He had a lot of situations where he was net front, had some rebounds, had some tips, created sort of the chaos that's around there, from just his big body being there. I think on Pionk's goal, he was the one battling on the wall to dig that out of there. So that's a lot of good things that you'd like to see from a guy like him, a big power forward."