![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP26115804053942-678x381.jpg\" "\\"Hurricanes")
\nHurricanes center Logan Stankoven celebrates his goal during Carolina\u2019s 4-2 win over the Senators to complete a series sweep and advance to the second round in Ottawa.. (Justin Tang \/ The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
\nHurricanes center Logan Stankoven celebrates his goal during Carolina\u2019s 4-2 win over the Senators to complete a series sweep and advance to the second round in Ottawa.. (Justin Tang \/ The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n
KANATA, Ontario \u2014 A second period hit that knocked Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin out of Game 4 between the Hurricanes and Senators set off a maelstrom of scrums and penalties that temporarily derailed Carolina\u2019s quest to complete a series sweep Ottawa on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But the Hurricanes, collectively furious with some of the Senators\u2019 actions in the middle frame, composed themselves in the third period, and Logan Stankoven\u2019s fourth goal in as many games gave Carolina a lead it wouldn\u2019t relinquish in a 4-2 win that eliminated Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very mature third period from us,\u201d said Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho, who scored a pair of empty-net goals to put the series on ice.<\/p>\n
Stankoven\u2019s go-ahead goal came just before the midway point of the third period.<\/p>\n
With Carolina on its fifth power play of the night, K\u2019Andre Miller \u2014 manning the point on the second unit because of Nikishin\u2019s absence \u2014 wristed a shot wide from the left point. But the puck caromed off the boards to the opposite side of the net right to Stankoven, who contorted himself to shove a shot into the vacant net.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good bounce off the boards, and the way I saw it out of the corner of my eye, he was going to be kind of in desperation mode, and I just tried to throw it there,\u201d Stankoven said.<\/p>\n
It was Stankoven\u2019s fourth goal in the series and 11th goal in the last 12 games dating back to March 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept telling (Stankoven) to get to the net because the puck seemed to be finding him,\u201d Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. \u201cAnother big goal tonight, and he\u2019s been so good. He competes so hard and he wants it so bad, and that\u2019s what everyone else in this room feeds off of and wants it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal reestablished the lead Carolina had in the wild second period.<\/p>\n
Taylor Hall \u2014 reviled at Canadian Tire Center for his hit in Game 3 that knocked Jake Sanderson out of the series \u2014 had opened the scoring at 15:15 of the second, but not before the game devolved into total bedlam following Ottawa defenseman Tyler Kleven\u2019s hit on Nikishin.<\/p>\n
Kleven delivered a hit that left Nikishin wobbly legged and out for the balance of the game. Andrei Svechnikov immediately retaliated, jumping on Kleven and raining blows down on the defenseman who is playing with a chin guard due to a broken jaw.<\/p>\n
It became the first of six consecutive power plays awarded to Ottawa, mayhem that included Nicolas Deslauriers \u2014 playing for an injured Nikolaj Ehlers \u2014 receiving two penalties during a near-line brawl that included Senators forward Ridly Greig delivering an unnoticed sucker punch to Carolina defenseman Sean Walker.<\/p>\n
In all the chaos, Hall broke the ice with his second goal of the series. A backhand flip in the neutral zone by Eric Robinson was settled by Mark Jankowski, who passed across to Hall on a quickly developing 2-on-1. Hall\u2019s low shot slid under Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark (26 saves) for a 1-0 Carolina lead.<\/p>\n
Walker, still irked by the Greig cheap shot, was called for two penalties in the final 3\u00bd minutes of the penalty-filled second period, and Ottawa finally converted a power play opportunity for the first time in the series when Drake Batherson scored his third goal of the series \u2014 the rest of the Senators scored twice in the four games \u2014 on a redirection of a Tim Stutzle shot.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes still credited their penalty kill, which went 8 for 9, with carrying the team in both the game and the four wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think probably the biggest reason why we won the series is that we killed so many penalties in crucial moments,\u201d Aho said.<\/p>\n
After the chaotic second period, Carolina regrouped in the locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably went a little cuckoo in the second there,\u201d Staal said. \u201cWe probably didn\u2019t help ourselves in a few situations. \u2026 And then the third period, we settled down and started playing our game and it showed, and we started taking control of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes drew a pair of penalties in the first 8\u00bd minutes of the period, and the second \u2014 to Kleven \u2014 led to Stankoven\u2019s go-ahead tally. Aho sandwiched his empty-net goals around a Dylan Cozens 6-on-4 tally with 1:51 left to seal the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe young kids that we added are just blossoming. We\u2019re watching it live, right?\u201d Hurricanes coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour said of Stankoven and linemate Jackson Blake, who combined for nine points in the series. \u201cIt\u2019s like they don\u2019t look like 22-year-old kids out there. It\u2019s impressive how they\u2019re playing, the competitiveness they\u2019re playing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Hall, the 34-year-old eight seasons removed from winning the Hart Trophy who finds himself atop the NHL playoff scoring list with seven points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine being in a better spot team-wise, just the mix of guys that we have,\u201d Hall said. \u201cAnd having Rod as a coach has been awesome for me, personally. \u2026 I think as the year\u2019s gone on, I\u2019ve just felt more comfortable and more comfortable to the point where I don\u2019t really have to think much out there. And when I get to that point, I feel pretty good as a hockey player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frederik Andersen has to be feeling pretty good as well. The veteran goalie made 25 saves in the win and stopped 105 of 110 shots (.955 save percentage) he faced in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t understate that, especially when you consider how well the other guy was playing in their end,\u201d Brind\u2019Amour said of Andersen\u2019s performance. \u201cIt was a goalie matchup, and they were going save for save. And we needed it, right? Otherwise this thing could look a lot different. \u2026 Freddie, it\u2019s probably the best hockey he\u2019s played for us since being a Hurricane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Carolina awaits its second round opponent, either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, and waits for the seven other teams to catch up to them and advance beyond the first round. It could be more than a week before the puck drop of Game 1 of the second round at Lenovo Center, but the Hurricanes believe they \u201ccan handle\u201d any way a series goes after clawing out four straight wins against the pesky Sens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe battle level, the way we stuck together, that was unbelievable,\u201d Aho said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a few things maybe we also want to learn from, probably. But that\u2019s the beauty of this thing. Now we get to play more hockey and hopefully use that experience if that ever comes in front of us. Then take the bads and goods and kind of flush it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Brind\u2019Amour said he believed Ehlers would play but was held out with a lower-body injury. \u2026 Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk finished the series with no points and a minus 4. \u2026 Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin played 10:14 of Carolina\u2019s 13:21 shorthanded minutes. \u2026 The Senators won 41 of 62 faceoffs in the game and 58.5% of the draws in the series. \u2026 Forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi, defenseman Mike Reilly and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov were healthy scratches for Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven celebrates his goal during Carolina\u2019s 4-2 win over the Senators to complete a series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5107],"tags":[194,29,5176,5,195,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-559808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-carolinahurricanes","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-hurricanes","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116469832918060962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}