3.11.23 Recap

RALEIGH, NC. -Just one day after being recalled from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League, Pyotr Kochetkov held the Philadelphia Flyers scoreless on Thursday, earning the Carolina Hurricanes a 1-0 victory.

The Story

After a slow start Tuesday night in Montreal almost plagued their efforts, the Canes came out of the gate on the gas pedal for tonight's affair.
In fact, Carolina claimed a 1-0 advantage on their very first shot of the evening, coming just 2:09 in. On the power play after a penalty to Kevin Hayes, a surgical setup allowed Andrei Svechnikov to find twine with little opposition.

PHI@CAR: Svechnikov one-times PPG to open scoring

Given that it was Carolina's 17th goal in just over 182 minutes of play, it felt like the Canes' offense would be off to the races once more.
Instead, goaltenders Pyotr Kochetkov and Felix Sandstrom took over from there.
Philadelphia sent the hosting club to the power play twice more in the opening frame, but the rookie Sandstrom was equal to each task sent his way. At the other end of the ice, Kochetkov only had to major test in the first, but the two moved the contest to the second 1-0.
The middle frame, which was played entirely at five-on-five, was when it became evident that the night was turning into a goaltender duel.
Each had several timely stops, first with Kochetkov having to turn away a Joel Farabee breakaway.
And as Sandstrom showed off his impressive post-to-post work, he also got a little help from the defense in front of him.
After the scoreless stretch of 20 minutes, the third period would go on to just be more of the same.
Both teams had one opportunity on the man advantage, but in the end, Kochetkov and Sandstrom went save-for-save once more.
Before Philadelphia could find the back of the net, the clock ran out and Pyotr Kochetkov closed the book on his fourth shutout in his last 18 games.

They Said It

Rod Brind'Amouroffering his thoughts on Kochetkov's performance...
"He made a couple really great saves. That's the difference in the game. Their goalie played really well and (Kochetkov) had to match it. The breakaway in the second was probably the biggest one. They had another one there in the third. When he needed to be solid, he was. I thought he did a good job puck-handling a couple of times too, just getting it out for us. It was a really, really good game for him."
Andrei Svechnikovon his fellow countryman, and expressing his general thoughts on having him back in Raleigh...
"You can just see he's so calm and very confident in himself. I guess he just knew [posting a shutout] was what he was going to do. It's awesome... I was very pumped when we called him up yesterday. I'm just excited for him. When they called his name at the beginning of the game, it was awesome. I think the fans love him and that's important."
Brett Pescegiving his thoughts on the contest as a whole...
"I thought we had a solid effort tonight. They blocked a lot of shots, credit to them. We had a lot of chances, we just didn't find the back of the net. But we did find a way to win, and that's what matters."

Bonus Notes

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