Looking to respond
after being held goalless Thursday night in Nashville
, the Canes, unfortunately, endured a similar start to today's tilt.
Coming out of the gate and producing a pair of dangerous chances in the first two minutes, it looked as if the club had some noticeable jump to their game. However, after they couldn't finish on their attempts, Buffalo then claimed the first goal of the afternoon at the other end of the ice at exactly 4:00 in.
Providing a somewhat deflating feeling, the Canes brushed it off and were then able to get to more of their game as the period progressed.
Inside the final six minutes of the opening frame, they'd then be rewarded with two goals separated by just 22 seconds.
To start, Seth Jarvis finally got the monkey off of his back, breaking a 21-game goal drought. Then, Jesper Fast followed suit with some hard work set up by Jordan Staal.
Taking their resilient start to the second, penalties then interjected themselves as a storyline.
After Jesperi Kotkaniemi was crunched at center ice by Sabres defenseman Riley Stillman, Jalen Chatfield came over in defense. While Chatfield never removed his gloves, he was sent to the box for cross-checking, allowing Buffalo to cash in on the man advantage.
Rasmus Dahlin made it a 2-2 contest and after the goal, the Canes bench continued to express their displeasure with the initial call on Chatfield. Before the officials could even drop the puck at center ice following, Carolina was tagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct infraction, sending the Sabres right back to the power play.
While they weren't able to replicate the same success, it allowed them to continue building momentum and prevent Carolina from spinning the game back in their favor. At least momentarily.
The successful penalty kill eventually paved the way for Carolina to get back in front, this time coming in the form of a pretty connection from Jesse Puljujarvi, Teuvo Teravainen, and Sebastian Aho.
