Hurricanes set shots record, hand Maple Leafs rare road loss

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Curtis McElhinney made 30 saves against his former team, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 at PNC Arena on Wednesday.

"It feels good, I'm not going to lie," McElhinney said. "It was a tough way to leave Toronto, but I certainly understand what the circumstances were. It's a huge win for us considering where they are in the standings."
McElhinney, claimed off waivers from Toronto on Oct. 2, won his second straight game for Carolina (10-8-3). The 35-year-old, 11-season veteran is 5-2-0 this season.
WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Hurricanes highlights]
John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (15-7-0), who had won four straight games, and nine of 10 on the road. Frederik Andersen made 40 saves but lost for the first time in seven starts.
"Bottom line is we didn't get what we wanted here today," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "Ideally, it's a good lesson for all of us. If we're not prepared, we have no chance at success, and we'll move on."
Trevor van Riemsdyk and Justin Williams scored 22 seconds apart in the first period, and Micheal Ferland scored a power-play goal in the third period before empty-net goals by Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho.

"It's huge," Ferland said. "Coming into tonight, we wanted to make a statement that we could play with any team. I thought we played really good tonight."
The Hurricanes outshot the Maple Leafs 29-11 in the first, setting a Carolina single-period record before getting two shots in the second period.

"They threw everything on net and they've been shooting a lot so far this season," Andersen said. "They definitely came and put everything on net. I thought we came back in the second, played a really good period there and just couldn't get it in."
Carolina took a 1-0 lead at 10:56 of the first period when van Riemsdyk swept a loose puck in the slot for his first goal of the season.
Williams scored at 11:18 to give Carolina a 2-0 lead. After Jordan Staal won a face-off, Calvin de Haan pinched with the puck and fed Williams at the net for his 100th goal for the Hurricanes.
Tavares made it 2-1 with his 14th goal of the season at 15:30 after he intercepted a pass from Williams.

Ferland made it 3-1 with a one-timer on the power play at 7:45 of the third period.
"(After the second period), we played it right," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We didn't sit back. I liked the way we competed in the third. We went after it."
Kasperi Kapanen scored on a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 3-2 at 11:57.
"It seemed like the pucks were kind of bouncing on us a little bit and we weren't able to finally connect and tie it up and really change the momentum of the game," Tavares said. "Obviously, we had a chance at the end in the last eight minutes, again within one, but obviously we'd like to start better than we did."
Aho scored an empty-net goal with 1:18 remaining to make it 4-2, and Svechnikov scored another with 38 seconds left for the 5-2 final.

Svechnikov, selected No. 2 in the 2018 NHL Draft, had a game-high eight shots in 15:17 of ice time.
"He's coming on," Brind'Amour said. "You see the confidence starting to come out of him. He's hanging on to pucks in the offensive zone, taking it to the net really hard."

They said it

"We talked about the process here today and being ready and we weren't. If you don't win any battles, any races, then it doesn't matter how much skill you have." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"Curtis has come in and he's been solid. He's done everything we've asked him to do. It's not an easy situation for him. He's got to leave his family behind (in Toronto). I think he's still in a hotel. It [stinks] for him probably. There's a reason why a guy like that lasts so long, and you can see it." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Need to know

Tavares has 23 goals in 35 games against the Hurricanes. ... Williams is the ninth NHL player to score 100 goals and win the Stanley Cup with two teams. He scored 103 goals and won the Cup twice with the Los Angeles Kings (2012, 2014). ... The Tampa Bay Lightning set the NHL record of 33 shots on goal in a period Oct. 21 against the Chicago Blackhawks.

What's next

Maple Leafs: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, TSN4, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes: Host the Florida Panthers on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-CR, FS-F, NHL.TV)