Hurricanes fall to Buffalo in shootout, 4-3

Goals

BUF – 1st, 12:07 — Marcus Foligno (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Chris Stewart (1), Tyson Strachan (1)

CAR – 2nd, 00:30 — Riley Nash (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Jay Harrison (1)

BUF – 2nd, 1:53 — Torrey Mitchell (1) Slap Shot, assists: Brian Gionta (1)

BUF – 3rd, 2:54 — Marcus Foligno (2) Snap shot – ASST: Cody Hodgson (1)

CAR – 3rd, 12:11 — Chris Terry (2) Wrist shot – ASST: Zach Boychuk (1), Riley Nash (2)

CAR – 3rd, 18:12 — Zach Boychuk (1) Wrist shot – ASST: Chris Terry (1), Justin Faulk (2)

Shootout Report

The Carolina Hurricanes came back home hoping to capture their first win of the season, unfortunately that’s not exactly what happened.

The Buffalo Sabres came into PNC Arena an angry team looking for their own first win, and got it in a 3-2 affair that featured some sloppy play by the home team early, but got interesting late.

Both teams went scoreless with a man advantage, but Carolina had the edge on the faceoff as they took the puck nearly 70 percent of the time. On the flipside, Buffalo came in and hit the ‘Canes early and often, registering 34 hits.

Carolina also caught up on shots as the game went on, taking 25 shots to the Sabres’ 26.

Buffalo’s first goal came midway through the first period on a 2-on-1 as Foligno found himself open and beat ‘Canes goaltender Cam Ward.

The injury bug reared its ugly head again in Raleigh again on the play, as defensemen Andrej Sekera crashed into the board as seen below.

He wouldn’t return to the game and the team has officially called this an upper body injury.

Carolina tied things up as Riley Nash scored his first goal of the year off a rebound not long into the second period, but Buffalo took back the lead soon after when Torrey Mitchell beat Ward on a one-timer to make it 2-1.

The Sabres looked to close things out as Foligno struck again early in the third period, this time sniping to Ward’s blocker side to make it a 3-1 game.

The ‘Canes never seemed to give up, however, even with 4 of their top 5 scorers from a year ago now on the shelf. Later in the period, Chris Terry got a pass from Zach Boychuk after the puck was won in the corner and put it in to reduce the deficit to 1.

Carolina then found themselves on the power play again in later in the third period, and after having produced no shots up until that point finally tied the game at 3 as Boychuk found the back of the net after battling for the puck inside.

The score was ruled a no-goal and play resumed, but it was reviewed and confirmed after Ward covered the puck on a save.

Neither team could put in a game-winner in regulation, so we went to both teams’ first overtime game of the year, and when no winner was decided in OT it came down to the first shootout of either team this season.

Alex Semin, who had struggled with puck possession all night, missed his first shot. Buffalo’s Matt Moulson took advantage of a missed prediction by Ward to give the Sabres a 1-0 edge.

Terry came up huge again for the ‘Canes, tying things up beating Jhonas Enroth by banking the puck off the netminder’s right pad.

Hodgsdon was denied by Ward, and former Sabre Nathan Gerbe’s shot went off the post for Carolina. Tyler Ennis had a chance to win for Buffalo, but had his shot also go off the post to the high side, just barely missing the back of the net.

Jay McClement also missed his opportunity for Carolina, while Ward denied Chris Stewart as the shootout seemed to drag on with denials and near-misses to go around.

After Ward made a great pad save in Round 7, Buffalo’s Zemgus Girgensons got it past the Carolina goaltender to give the Sabres their first win of the year.

Carolina did get a point despite the loss, and will look for their first win at Madison Square Garden when they face the New York Rangers on Thursday.