The Carolina Hurricanes, after defeating the New York Rangers on Tuesday (Nov. 4), hosted the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in the first of two meetings this season. The Wild came into town on a two-game winning streak. The Hurricanes looked to snap another winning streak during the first week of November. After the final horn sounded, the Hurricanes held on to win 4-3 over the Wild.
Game Recap
The first period in one word: WILD. The first 20 minutes of the game saw five total goals, three from the Hurricanes and two from the Wild. After Matt Boldy made it 1-0 for the visitors earlier in the period, Jackson Blake, with his one-man effort, scored a highlight reel goal to beat Filip Gustavsson. Not even 31 seconds later, Brock Faber made it a 2-1 Wild lead. To complete the utter chaos, Andrei Svechnikov made it a 2-2 game just 21 seconds later. In a span of a minute, there were three goals, all at 4-on-4.
The reason for the long 4-on-4 was that Tyler Pitlick was kicked out of the game for an illegal check to the head on Jalen Chatfield. Jordan Staal, in his 910th game with the Hurricanes (now the franchise’s all-time leader), received a 10-minute misconduct for the fight, five minutes for fighting, and two minutes for instigating.
Sean Walker, later in the first period, made it 3-2 Hurricanes. It’s his second straight game with a goal, and back-to-back games with a multipoint night following an assist on the Blake goal. The Hurricanes led in shots 7-3 and were up 3-2 after a chaotic and wild first 20 minutes.