Raleigh, NC -- Alex Nedeljkovic led his team with a 32-save shutout, as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Wednesday night.
Sebastian Aho scored twice; Warren Foegele scored his seventh career playoff goal.
"The blowouts...they're fun, they're easygoing. But there's nothing like a close game, a tense game," Canes goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said. "The whole time, from the first puck drop to the final buzzer, everybody is on the edge of their seat. That's the beauty of the game."
By Alex Nedeljkovic's standards, Game Two of the Carolina Hurricanes first-round playoff series against the Nashville Predators was a beauty.
Not everyone agreed.
"That wasn't pretty, right?" Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It wasn't a very good game, I felt. We just couldn't get any traction...It was just a very strange flow to the game."
Whatever your opinion of the game, there's no doubt that several players for the Canes turned in stellar performances. The absence of Jaccob Slavin--a late scratch--demanded it.
"You can't say enough about [the penalty killers]," Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Pesce and Skjei, in particular, had to step up tonight, and they did in a huge way."
Indeed, the Canes penalty killers, led by Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei saw plenty of ice-time. The Canes were whistled for seven minor penalties and killed off all seven. They're now a perfect 10 for 10 on the penalty kill this postseason.
"I figured with [Slavin] being out, I would go up a little bit in ice-time," Brady Skjei said. "The [penalty kills] were a big part of that...Once you get in the flow of the game, you feel like you're not even thinking about ice-time; you're just kind of playing. That was my thought process, and I think we did a really good job."
What was the key ingredient to the penalty kill? Brady Skjei offered an answer.
"The number one star was probably Ned; he was a stud tonight," Skjei said. "To have a good [penalty kill], you need your goaltender playing well, and he was phenomenal tonight."
The head coach agreed.
"He was pretty calm in there," Brind'Amour said of Nedeljkovic. "Obviously, he made some big saves in there at critical times...we had some big-time performances tonight."
"That's the stuff you think about growing up," Nedeljkovic said. "Even in practices, you try to play out certain scenarios in your mind, 'one-goal game, few minutes left, you got to make a save.'"
In what was a tight game with few grade-A scoring chances for either team, Sebastian Aho scored both of the critical goals.
In the first period, the Canes scored their first powerplay goal of the postseason. Andrei Svechnikov found Aho with a seam pass, and Aho ripped a one-timer past Juuse Saros to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.
The next 50 minutes were a parade of penalties for the Hurricanes. The Predators outshot the Canes 15-10 in the second period but were unable to score.
The final minute of play saw more goals than the first 59 minutes.
It started with Brett Pesce clearing the puck from his own zone. Then Sebastian Aho won a skate race, negating icing. The 23-year-old Finn, wearing an 'A' on his sweater with Slavin absent, fired home a sharp-angle shot into the empty net to give Carolina a 2-0 lead in the game.
Warren Foegele added a third goal for Carolina with less than 30 seconds left. His goal gave Carolina back-to-back three-goal victories over Nashville.
With a commanding 2-0 series lead, the Canes now travel to Nashville for the next two games.
Housekeeping
Jesper Fast, Andrei Svechnikov, Dougie Hamilton, and Brett Pesce each had one assist for Carolina.
Cedric Paquette (lower body) and Jaccob Slavin (lower body) did not dress for Carolina.
Up Next
The series now shifts to Nashville. Game Three is Friday night at 7:00 Eastern; Game Four will be Sunday afternoon at 2:30 Eastern.