RALEIGH — Welcome to Raleigh, Mikko Rantanen.
In his first home game at Lenovo Center, Rantanen scored the go-ahead goal in the second period of the Hurricanes’ 3-2 win over the Blackhawks on Thursday.
With the game tied 1-1 early in the second period, Jack Roslovic started a rush up ice and moved to the middle at the Chicago blue line.
Rantanen cut behind him and Roslovic — centering Carolina’s top line with Sebastian Aho out with an illness — put a drop pass right on his new teammate’s stick. Rantanen shot from the left circle, and the puck trickled through Arvid Soderblom for his first goal with the Hurricanes and 26th of the season, triggering “Moose!” chants in the arena.
“Roslovic made a heck of a play on the entry, the drop pass, and this time it went in,” Rantanen said. “So I was glad to help the team that way.”
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said clearing another hurdle can help Rantanen settle in with his team.
“He knows he wants to come here and help contribute right away,” Brind’Amour said, “and you’ve got to be on the score sheet. … And now he has. He’s got his goal, and he was impactful. He could have had a couple tonight. He was really good and nice to see him get that, and now he doesn’t have to worry about it.”
Sixty-seven seconds after Rantanen’s goal, defenseman Jaccob Slavin extended the lead to 3-1.
Rookie Jackson Blake pulled the puck out of a scrum in the Blackhawks’ zone, made a few quick moves to create space and snapped a shot that hit Soderblom (24 saves) and then the crossbar. Slavin crashed the net on the backside, outmuscled Chicago forward Phillip Kurashev and shoveled in the rebound for his fourth goal of the season at 5:59 of the second.
Juha Jaaska, playing his 14th NHL game, picked up an assist — his second of the night after he set up a shorthanded goal to open the scoring.
The Hurricanes didn’t allow a shot on goal for the first 15 minutes of the game but found themselves on the penalty kill whenCarolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was called for tripping.
But it was Carolina that benefited from Chicago being on the power play.
Seth Jarvis forced a turnover at the Carolina blue line and rushed up ice with Jaaska for a 2-on-1. Jarvis gave the puck up to Jaaska at center ice and slashed to the middle. Jaaska saucered a pass over Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez’s stick that Jarvis quickly settled and shot past Soderblom to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 16:57 of the first.
“He was so hyped. I was so hyped,” said Jaaska, who now has three assists and recorded his first career multipoint game. “Those are the moments when you get the emotions. I don’t know, it’s super cool, especially when you don’t (score) much points and then you, do you are like, ‘Oh my,’ they feel so good.”
Brind’Amour has called on Jaaska to kill penalties since Jack Drury was sent to Colorado in the Rantanen trade, and the 26-year-old Finn made the most of it.
“That was a heck of a play there; nice touch,” Brind’Amour said. “Out of necessity, we were looking for killers. We’re running out of them, and he stepped up. That was a crucial moment, really.”
The Blackhawks finally registered a shot with just under three minutes left in the period, and shortly after, the visitors tied the game.
A puck got past Gostisbehere along the boards in the neutral zone, leading to a quick-developing 2-on-1. Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno passed the puck ahead to Ilya Mikheyev for a breakaway, and he scored his ninth goal of the season to tie the game with 1:22 left in the first period.
Down two goals in the third period, Chicago cut the lead in half when Connor Bedard scored his 15th goal of the season past Pyotr Kochetkov (18 saves).
Carolina, playing with just 17 skaters because both Aho and Taylor Hall were out with an illness spreading through the locker room, found just enough to get by the woebegone Blackhawks to extend its point streak to seven games.
“Considering what we’re missing, and then we have couple guys that were not feeling 100%, that’s for sure,” Brind’Amour said. “So we gutted it out, and we’ll move on.”
Notes: The Hurricanes honored Frederick Andersen before the game after he recently played his 500th career game and earned his 300th win. … Teuvo Teravainen played his first game against the Hurricanes since signing with Chicago in the offseason.
