Mrazek, Hurricanes shut out Blackhawks to end losing streak

RALEIGH, N.C. --Petr Mrazek made 32 saves and Andrei Svechnikov scored twice to help the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 at PNC Arena on Saturday.

Mrazek, who got his second shutout of the season and 20th in the NHL, improved to 5-1-1 this season.
"(It was) busy in the first period," Mrazek said. "It's good when you have a lot of stuff coming at you. I saw the puck very well and the guys did a great job in front of me."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Nino Niederreiter had a goal and an assist, and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes (7-3-1), who ended a three-game losing streak.
"We had our moments," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Not great, but overall I thought it was a pretty solid game. I love the way we played in the third with the lead, still going after it."

Corey Crawford made 27 saves for the Blackhawks (2-5-2), who are 0-3-1 in their past four games.
"I thought we played pretty hard, pretty well for two periods," Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. "I'm disappointed we didn't get better for that effort. We've just got to keep playing, stick to it."
Svechnikov gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead with his first NHL power-play goal at 4:17 of the first period on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle. Dougie Hamilton got an assist to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, two assists).

"I just have to keep going and shoot more on the power play," Svechnikov said. "You get more comfortable when you score on the power play."
Niederreiter scored his first goal of the season to put the Hurricanes up 2-0 with 46 seconds remaining in the second period with a wrist shot that went off Crawford's shoulder.
"When you don't score you try to change something, which you shouldn't do," Niederreiter said. "You should probably keep your game. I'm happy one finally went in and I got that off my chest."
Staal scored a power-play goal for a 3-0 lead at 3:19 of the third period. He took Aho's pass from behind the net and scored from between the circles.

"They got the third goal, we started pressing a little bit, getting loose defensively," Colliton said. "They got a lot of chances in the last 12 minutes, which I didn't love."
Svechnikov scored from the top of the crease with 1:11 remaining to make it 4-0.

They said it

"No question, if we score at any point in the first 45 minutes, it's a different game. We just couldn't finish. I thought, outside of the first shift when we turned the puck over four or five times, I thought we were really good. That's not how they play the games though. If we put a good 60 (minutes) together over and over, I'd be happy with that. We were a little short of that tonight." -- Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton
"[Mrazek] was sharp. You could tell he was ahead of it in a first period that easily could have went their way. I think that was the difference, coming out of the first period because of him. He's been good. We're going to need him." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Need to know

Mrazek, whose other shutout this season came in a 2-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 15, has won 13 straight home starts (including the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs). ... Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce played in his 300th NHL game. ... The Hurricanes were 1-for-19 on the power play in their past six games prior to scoring twice Saturday. ... Aho had his first multi-point game of the season. He had 20 multipoint games last season. ... The Blackhawks have scored two goals in their past three games. ... Crawford is 1-4-0 with a 3.67 goals-against average and .888 save percentage this season ... Chicago went 0-for-3 on the power play and is 0-for-16 in its past four games.

What's next

Blackhawks:Host the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:Host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SNF, NHL.TV)