The Carolina Hurricanes joined an exclusive group when Jackson Blake scored at 5:31 of overtime on Saturday evening to give them a 3-2 win against the host Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference second-round matchup.
When the 22-year-old winger took a feed from Taylor Hall and banked his wrist shot off the left shoulder of Flyers goalie Dan Vladar and across the goal line, the Hurricanes completed their second straight series sweep of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and became the first NHL team since the 1985 Edmonton Oilers to win their first eight playoff games.
“We’re getting some huge performances, but everybody is doing it,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s how we have to get it done and, go down the list, every guy has had his hands in these two series wins.”
The Hurricanes advanced to the conference finals, where they’ll enjoy a lengthy break as they await the winner of the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. That best of-7 series is tied 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Sunday in Montreal.
“There’s positives and negatives to it,” Hall said of the long layoff between rounds. “The big positive is we’re on to the third round relatively unscathed and healthy.”
Blake also scored in the first period and assisted on Logan Stankoven’s goal in the third. Hall assisted on all three goals, and Frederik Andersen made 15 saves for Carolina.
“We are playing well and it’s great to get the sweeps, but I think we do have another level to get to,” Stankoven said. “I’m sure if you asked any of the guys, they would agree with me.”
Tyson Foerster and Alex Bump scored and Vladar made 37 saves for the Flyers, who went 1-for-19 on the power play in the series.
“We squeezed as much juice from this team. I can’t ask for more,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “We hung in there. That’s a good hockey team over there. They roll four lines, they were flying.”
Foerster scored his first goal of the playoffs to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 7:50 of the first period.
Porter Martone fed a pass ahead to Trevor Zegras, who had more speed as they both crossed the Carolina blue line. Zegras pulled up along the wall and saucered a centering pass to Foerster entering the zone. He brought the puck to the right hash marks before scoring with a wrist shot.
Blake took a wrist shot from near the wall above the right faceoff circle and the puck hit the midsection of Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale as he battled Stankoven in front of the crease, causing it to be redirected into his own net and tying it at 12:35 of the second period.
The Hurricanes briefly thought they moved ahead on a goal by Mark Jankowski at 13:03 of the second, but the Flyers successfully challenged for goalie interference on William Carrier as he jostled with Oliver Bonk in front of the crease.
Hall made a centering pass to Stankoven on a 3-on-2 rush and he redirected the puck into the net for his NHL-leading seventh goal of the postseason, giving the Hurricanes their first lead of the game, 2-1, at 4:13 of the third period.
That lead didn’t last long as Travis Konecny forced a turnover below the Carolina goal line and passed the puck out front to Bump, who scored with a one-timer from between the hash marks to tie it at 5:52.
“Bumper, he makes a mistake on the second goal, he gets the tying goal,” Tocchet said. “He gets right back out there. That’s the stuff you want to see. He’s not on the bench sulking. He knew he made the mistake. He goes out there and, bang, it’s in the net. That’s the growth you like to see.”
–Field Level Media
