Recap: Forsberg Paves Sens Win Over Canes

RALEIGH, NC - The Carolina Hurricanes scoring frustrations were only furthered Thursday night as they fell to the Ottawa Senators, 3-2.

Carolina entered the contest coming off of an effort Tuesday night in Dallas where they were on the wrong side of a 4-1 score, despite outshooting the Stars by a margin of 40-17.
Unfortunately the story was more of the same tonight.
Ottawa opened the contest with a goal on their first shot just 2:43 in, as Alex Formenton got a step on Brendan Smith and slid one under Antti Raanta to give the visiting side a 1-0 lead. This was a Senators club that flew to Raleigh late last night after being beat by the struggling Vancouver Canucks 6-2 on their home ice.
From there, the evening's story became Ottawa netminder Anton Forsberg.
Despite concluding the first period with 10 high danger chances, courtesy of
naturalstattrick.com
, Forsberg found a way to keep every one out, holding his team to their 1-0 lead. At the first intermission shots were 20-3.
The middle 20 minutes was more of the same.
Scoreboard reflecting an advantage in shots of 34-11, the Canes still found themselves down by a goal. The power play, which had three opportunities, had moved their struggles to 0-for-20. An avalanche of frustrations could be felt upon the team.
Carolina's pressure continued into the third but unfortunately Ottawa's lead moved to 2-0 before they could see any light. Although initially ruled no goal on the ice due to goaltender interference, a challenge from the Senators coaching staff overturned the call and the lead of a pair was placed in tact.
Just went it felt like it was easy to say it wasn't the team's night, they then came to life. Two goals in just 1:45 made it a 2-2 game, with the first coming on the man advantage from Teuvo Teravainen.

It provided a surge within the building and the PNC Arena crowd really celebrated when Andrei Svechnikov then poked home his eighth of the year to tie the contest.

The wave of momentum forced the Ottawa bench to call a timeout, hoping to settle their troops down in the midst of a strong push by their opposition.
It worked to perfection.
19 seconds after D.J. Smith got his team together, Josh Norris put a puck on net that took an unfortunate carom off of Ian Cole and past Raanta to close the book on a 3-2 game.
They Said It:
Antti Raanta on how the team gets through a frustrating skid like this:
"I think we just need to come in tomorrow and be ready to work again. We do all the right things, it's just the last couple of inches were we maybe need to get the bounces. Rod said after the second period 'if we keep playing like this, we'll get the goals' and we got two quick ones. It's there. Everybody just has to understand that it's not like we've been playing bad, bad hockey. I think we're doing the right things, it's just the small little details when we're getting the scoring chances. Maybe when we get the rebounds we just have to try and elevate the puck a little more. There's been a couple times where we've had almost a wide open net and somehow the other team has made an unreal save. [Laughs]. Tomorrow, we're going to have a good practice. We have to keep our mind open, we can't hang our head and be super sad about something. The game is there and we've been doing the right things, we're just not getting the bounces right now. We just have to keep working hard and the results will come."
Andrei Svechnikov on how as players they're trying to will each other through the rough patch:
"You just talk with the boys. Last game our power play wasn't great and we just came together as the boys and we talked about it. I thought our power play created so many chances today, we just didn't finish them. Turbo got one, but we could've had four. We just talk with the boys, listen to the coaches and calm down a little bit. We know we're one of the best teams in the league."
Rod Brind'Amour laying out his thoughts:
"We're getting tested here, for sure on a lot of fronts, but we've been responding. We were down two on a crazy bounce, then we get a couple and then right away [they get another]. It's a tough time mentally right now because nothing is going our way. Let's just be frank, nothing is going our way. No one is going to feel sorry for us and we're not asking for that. The key is just to stay positive, there's no point in being sorry for yourself, we just have to keep working and to me, things are going to work out. If we get that effort night in and night out, we're going to win a lot of games."
What's Next?:
The team will practice at PNC Arena tomorrow in preparation for their hosting of the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night.
Bonus Notes:
- Jordan Martinook left tonight's game twice due to injury, not returning after the second time down the tunnel. Post-game Brind'Amour said post-game that "he's got some sort of problem in his ankle area". - Teuvo Teravainen's goal tonight was his 100th in his National Hockey League career. - Jaccob Slavin played a season-high 29:30 tonight, nearly half of the game. Over nine minutes of that time came on special teams. - Sebastian Aho had an assist on both Hurricanes goals. He is now up to 22 points in 22 games this season. - Teuvo Teravainen had a season-high eight shots on goal. - Ottawa snapped a six-game skid with tonight's win. It was their second win away from home all season.