Bean, Lorentz Bring Home Mementos From First Goals

In addition to three wins and six points, the Carolina Hurricanes brought home a pair of mementos from their five-game road trip: two pucks from first career goals in the National Hockey League.
Those pucks, which the team will frame with a photo as a keepsake, belong to Jake Bean and Steven Lorentz.

Bean netted his first career NHL goal on Feb. 27 against the Florida Panthers, the Canes' second power-play marker of the game that put them ahead 2-0 just 90 seconds into the third period. The Canes worked the puck up the wall to Brett Pesce, who swung it across to Bean. The Canes' 13th overall pick from 2016 stepped up into a shooting lane and let go of a wrist shot labeled for the top corner through a screen in front of Sergei Bobrovsky. The Canes went on to win the game
4-3 in a shootout
.

"We had a good break in on the power play. Pesce rolled over the top, gave it to me and I was walking it down. No pressure," Bean described. "I saw Nino in front. He had a great screen on the goal. It wouldn't have gone in if he wasn't there."
Martin Necas, a teammate of Bean's on the Charlotte Checkers Calder Cup championship team from 2019, scooped the puck and tossed it to Alex Nedeljkovic, the AHL goaltender of the year that same season, on the bench for safe keeping.
"All the boys on the bench were so happy and so excited for him. He's been playing really well. You're always happy for a guy to get his first," Warren Foegele said. "He's a really special player and a great person."
Three nights later in Nashville, it was Lorentz's turn.
In the second period, with the Canes leading 2-0, Jordan Martinook attempted a centering pass in the offensive zone, but it popped into the air off the sliding defense of Ben Harpur. Former Hurricane Erik Haula batted the puck down with a high stick, and Lorentz pounced on it in the slot, roofing the puck over Pekka Rinne. As it turned out, that goal held up as the
game winner in a 4-2 final
.

"I just tried to put it on net. He's a big goalie, so I just tried to raise it. I found a corner. I'm so happy it went in," Lorentz described. "I don't really know what I did afterwards. The boys were telling me I was pretty excited and celebrated big."
That he did, but it was well-earned for a 24-year-old who was a seventh-round draft pick - in his second time through the NHL Draft, no less - and worked his way up through every level of hockey from the OHL to the ECHL to the AHL to now making it happen in the NHL.
"Everyone is happy for the guy. He's a guy who works hard and does everything for the team," Sebastian Aho said. "He's a great kid. I'm sure he'll play many, many years in this league just because of his attitude and his work mentality. We're really, really happy for the guy."
Dougie Hamilton fetched the puck from Lorentz's goal, and after posing with it postgame - Vincent Trocheck jumped into a photo, Lorentz revealed on
episode 165 of CanesCast
- it was handed off for safe keeping.
Those two pucks will be framed in the coming weeks, mementos for nights to remember in a season that's shaping up to be one to remember, as well.