Panthers Shut Out Hurricanes 6-0 in Second Half of Back-to-Back – The Hockey Writers NHL News Latest News, Analysis & More

As the final horn sounded on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 30) in Sunrise, Florida, the Carolina Hurricanes’ November stretch of games was over. Mercifully, it was needed for the Hurricanes, as the two post-Thanksgiving games did not go their way. After losing on Friday, Nov. 29, 6-3 in Raleigh, they went down to South Florida and lost 6-0 in a game that saw the Panthers dominate from start to finish.

Game Recap

After the first 20 minutes, there was a lot to be hopeful about since the Hurricanes outshot the Panthers 11-9 in the first period and the score was 0-0. As the rest of the game went on, it was all on the home side as they went and outshot the visitors 26-9 in the final 40 minutes. The Panthers had two goals in the second period from Aaron Ekblad and Mackie Samoskevich. Samoskevich’s goal was on the power play, the first of three man-advantage markers in the game. Ekblad’s goal came after their first goal was taken away for an offside, but that one did count despite the referees looking for possible goaltender interference.

Related: Hurricanes’ Winning Streak Snapped in 6-3 Loss to Panthers

Despite being down 2-0 after 40 minutes, there was still time left for the Hurricanes to climb back into the game. They had comebacks earlier in the week against the Dallas Stars and the New York Rangers. There had to be some hope of more magic from the team against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Unfortunately, that was not the case, as it only got worse for Rod Brind’Amour’s team.

The third period saw four Panthers goals, two on the power play from Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodriguez. They went 3-for-6 on the power play against a Hurricanes penalty kill unit that was top 10 in the NHL going into the game. Their other two goals came from Sam Bennett and Adam Boqvist, the first of the season for the latter. The former scored his goal after getting out of the penalty box. He was in there for an interference penalty after shouldering Jalen Chatfield into netminder Spencer Martin. The visitors had two shots in the final period compared to the four goals from the home team.

In two games, Florida outscored Carolina 12-3 in six periods.

The next game for the Hurricanes (16-7-1) is on Tuesday, Dec. 3, vs the Seattle Kraken at home. The Panthers’ next game is on Dec. 3 vs the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road.