Hurricanes get early lead, hang on to defeat Predators

[March 03, 2021]  Steven Lorentz scored his first career goal and Sebastian Aho tallied twice as the visiting Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to a three-goal lead and held on for a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Vincent Trocheck also scored for the Hurricanes, who got 36 saves from James Reimer to claim their third straight win.

Despite playing their sixth game in nine days -- and eighth in 12 days -- the Hurricanes controlled the opening period and staked Reimer to a two-goal lead by the intermission.

Aho opened the scoring for Carolina. After Martin Necas stole the puck in Nashville territory, he fed a pass to Aho in the slot, and Aho wired a one-timer for his seventh goal of the season at the 12:36 mark.

Trocheck extended his goal-scoring streak to three games when he doubled the lead with a power-play goal. Jordan Staal cleanly won the offensive-zone faceoff, pulling it to the point for Dougie Hamilton, whose long wrist shot was deflected by Trocheck for his 12th goal of the season at 16:13.

Lorentz, a seventh-round draft choice in 2015, scored 4:48 into the second period to make it 3-0. Lorentz, playing his 12th career NHL game, was on the spot for a loose puck during a scramble and found the mark.

The Predators, however, made it a tight finish with a third-period comeback attempt.

Calle Jarnkrok put the hosts on the board with a power-play marker, a redirect of Nick Cousins' shot, at the six-minute mark. Then, Mattias Ekholm pulled the Predators within a goal just over two minutes later with a long seeing-eye shot through the screen.

Nashville Predators center Mikael Granlund (64) passes the puck against Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal (11) during the first period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Nashville couldn't find the equalizer before Aho rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal.

The loss came with more bad news for the Predators. Starting goalie Juuse Saros left the game after the first period -- in which he stopped eight of 10 shots -- and was replaced by Pekka Rinne.

Rinne made 16 saves in relief for the Predators.

Earlier in the day, Nashville announced that defenseman Ryan Ellis will miss up to six weeks due to an upper-body injury, forward Luke Kunin will miss two to four weeks due to a lower-body injury and center Ryan Johansen was placed on the NHL's COVID protocol list.

--Field Level Media
 

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