Brandon Bussi kept his winning streak alive and his magical season ongoing as he backstopped the Carolina Hurricanes to 3 -2 shootout win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night at our Nation’s Capital.
It was Bussi’s eighth win in a row and his 10th win in his first 11 NHL games, which is an NHL record.
In his first ever NHL shootout appearance, he stopped all the Capitals’ shooters. Overall, he made 23 saves on the 25 shots he faced.
Seth Jarvis scored the only goal in the skills competition to give his team the two points.
The Canes had to come from behind twice in this game as they fell behind 1-0 early in the second, then 2-1 in the third.
After the Canes had dominated most of the period, while hitting the post three times on various shots, Nikolaj Ehlers tied the game later in the second to make it 1-1. Logan Stankoven and Alexander Nikishin got the assists.
This might have been the best game Ehlers played as a Hurricane. He was all over the ice.
Jordan Martinook and Nic Dowd dropped the gloves right off the faceoff to start the third period although no damage was done, then Dowd would give the home team a 2-1 lead midway through the period.
With a bit over two minutes left in the game, Ehlers found Stankoven out front and the new second line center rifled in his shot to make the score, 2-2.
The score remained tied until overtime where the Canes looked out of synch as they managed zero shots on goal. Bussi stopped the three shots he faced in the extra period.
Next up came the shootout, which has not been a good thing for Carolina in the past.
But Bussi continued his strong play and all the Canes needed was a nifty move by Jarvis, who made a triple fake to guide the puck past Logan Thompson.
The Hurricanes outshot the Caps 39-25 and won 65% of the game’s faceoffs.
The Canes will make a short trip to Philadelphia for the first game of a back-to-back on Saturday night with the Flyers.