Logan Stankoven made the night his own, finishing with a natural hat trick as the Carolina Hurricanes rolled past the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 to open Vancouver’s East Coast road trip in ugly fashion.
Carolina wasted no time setting the tone. Just 1:18 into the game, Andrei Svechnikov worked behind the net and pulled three Canucks defenders toward him before slipping the puck to Sebastian Aho.
Aho moved it quickly to the blue line, where Sean Walker fired a shot that never found the net cleanly but did graze William Carrier on the way through. The loose puck bounced to K’Andre Miller, and he buried it for a 1-0 Hurricanes lead.
The Canes kept coming on their first power play of the night. Shayne Gostisbehere controlled the point and sent a perfect pass to Svechnikov in front, where he calmly finished after a slick move by Kevin Lankinen to make it 2-0.
Later in the period, Carolina struck again with the man advantage on a clean faceoff sequence. Gostisbehere got the puck back to Jackson Blake, and as Svechnikov drifted toward the net alone, Blake feathered him a sharp pass that Svechnikov stuffed home for a 3-0 lead.
The special teams edge was there from the start. Carolina killed both first-period penalties, including one that carried over into the second, while Pyotr Kochetkov faced just four shots in the opening frame.
The Hurricanes stretched the lead further in the second after finishing that penalty kill and grinding the puck back into the offensive zone. Jesperi Kotkaniemi made a strong play at the blue line to keep the possession alive, and the puck ended up with Mark Jankowski alone in front. He waited out Lankinen and lifted in Carolina’s fourth goal.
Vancouver finally answered when Jake DeBrusk cleaned up a Jonathan Lekkerimaki rebound that Kochetkov couldn’t corral. That goal gave the Canucks a brief spark, and they earned their third power play of the night soon after. But Carolina snuffed that out too, and then turned defense into another goal.
Sean Walker got the puck behind the net and fed Aho, who held off two Canucks before springing Walker up the ice. Walker then slipped a pass past Filip Hronek to a rushing Stankoven, who finished easily for Carolina’s first shorthanded goal of the season and a 5-1 cushion.
The Hurricanes were not done on the power play. Late in the second, Stankoven cashed in again, taking a Taylor Hall feed that had deflected off Victor Mancini and roofing it past Lankinen for a 6-1 lead heading into the third.
Stankoven completed the natural hat trick in the final period with more help from his line. He helped keep the puck in the offensive zone, worked back below the line to Hall, then got himself to the front of the net. Hall found him with a perfect pass, and Stankoven buried it past Leevi Merilainen, who had replaced Lankinen to start the third.
DeBrusk added his second of the night a few minutes later to finish the scoring at 7-2.
Aho extended his point streak to five games with one credited assist, while Blake, Hall and Svechnikov each finished with two points.
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