Coming off of a hugely disappointing loss in New York on Friday, the Carolina Hurricanes needed to beat the Florida Panthers, and they did.
It was a big hockey game, one that ended up being low-scoring, but for what it lacked in goals, it made up for with physicality and emotion.
It was all Hurricanes for the first 20 minutes on Saturday night.
The Canes kept their foot down offensively, getting chance after chance against Panthers netminder James Reimer.
The home team wasn’t able to convert on either of their first two powerplays, but the third time was the charm as Elias Lindholm carried the puck down the middle of the zone, dropped it off to Sebastian Aho, and deflected the return pass short-side on Reimer.