Hurricanes douse Flames for first win
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[October 21, 2016]
CALGARY, Alberta -- Eddie Lack
doesn't know why he plays well against the Calgary Flames, he's just
happy he does.
The Swedish goaltender made 24 saves on Thursday night to backstop
the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-2 win over their hosts for Carolina's
first win of the season and fifth for Lack in seven career starts
against the Flames.
"In the beginning of my career (with Vancouver) we played good team
games and it was the same today," he said.
"It's just circumstantial."
Teuvo Teravainen, Victor Rask, Viktor Stalberg and Jeff Skinner
scored for Carolina (1-1-2), which is starting the season with a
six-game road trip.
Johnny Gaudreau, who signed a six-year $40.5 million contract the
day before the season began, scored his first of the season for
Calgary (1-3-1). Troy Brouwer also scored for the Flames.
Lack previously also played for the Vancouver Canucks and had a 1.99
goals against average against Calgary coming into the game. He was
acquired by Carolina prior to the 2015-16 season.
Brian Elliott, who was picked up from St. Louis in the offseason as
Calgary looked to strengthen their goaltending, made 28 stops but
surrendered two soft goals -- to Rask and Stalberg -- and is winless
in three games.
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Carolina surrendered leads in losing in overtime in the first two
games of their Western Canadian trip and the fact they didn't
Thursday left head coach Bill Peters nothing but happy.
"We were poised and more confident in each other and the system," he
said. "We got real good contribution from throughout the lineup."
Special teams were key to this game. The Hurricanes were 2-for-8 on
the power play while the Flames struggled, going 0-for-6, which left
their new head coach Glen Gulutzan wanting to talk about one thing
only when addressing the Calgary media.
"Our whole game isn't what's frustrating, just parts of it are, and
what's frustrating me is the specialty teams," he said.
"They had two power play goals and we didn't. We just couldn't win
on special teams."
The Flames had plenty of opportunities in the opening period with
eight power-play minutes, four of them coming on a double minor for
high sticking when Lee Stempniak clipped Flames captain Mark
Giordano under the eye with an accidental high stick.
"It's good to get the first win," said Stempniak, who is with his
10th NHL team.
"Results aside I think we've played very well and we're pretty
satisfied. We're looking to build on this."
Lack regrouped after giving up four goals in his only other start
this season, a 5-4 overtime loss to his first NHL team in Vancouver
five days previous.
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![](../images/102116pics/sports72.jpg)
Hurricanes left wing Jeff Skinner (53) celebrates his goal with
teammates against Calgary Flames during the third period at
Scotiabank Saddledome. Carolina Hurricanes won 4-2. Mandatory
Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
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"We haven't had any luck with three goal leads so far so I'm really
happy that we got it done there at the end. It's a good feeling," he
said.
The Flames looked lifeless until late in the second when Brouwer
scored.
"I don't know what it is," center Sean Monahan wondered. "I think we
got to be more desperate, be hungry. We've got to get dirty. We're
losing battles on the wall and we should be getting those pucks. I
think that's hurting us."
Teravainen popped his own rebound past Elliott to open the scoring
at 7:55 and Rask's soft wrister found the net from the top of the
faceoff circle through a long screen on the power play at 16:12.
Stalberg got in behind the Flames defense at Calgary's blue line,
took a nice feed from Klas Dahlbeck and slipped a weak backhand past
Elliott to make it 3-0 at 4:55 the second period.
Brouwer woke up the listless Flames with just 1:53 left in the
second. He burst in on his off-wing and snapped a shot over Lack's
stick-side.
NOTES: Flames' 2016 first round pick Matthew Tkachuk played his
fifth game Thursday, inching closer to the ninth he is allowed
before Calgary must decide on whether to send him back to junior.
The left-winger scored his first NHL goal in Tuesday's overtime
victory over Buffalo. ... Calgary scratches were D Dennis Wideman, D
Nicklas Grossmann and C Freddie Hamilton. ... Carolina scratches
were D Jakub Nakladal, C Andrej Nestrasil and RW Martin Frk. ... The
Flames have no injuries to report through the first five games. ...
The Hurricanes will be without D Ryan Murphy for 3-to-4 weeks
because of a lower body injury. ... Carolina won't play its first
home game until Oct. 28. They wrap up a six-game road trip to start
the season with games in Philadelphia on Saturday and Detroit on
Tuesday. ... The Hurricanes had gone 0-6-1 since their last win in
Calgary (2002).
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