RALEIGH, N.C. — This is the way it’s going to be the rest of the season, Carolina Hurricanes forward Derek Stepan said Saturday.
The games will be tight, the scores close, open ice hard to find, regardless of the opponent. And Stepan should know, having played his 800th career game Saturday as the Canes faced the Philadelphia Flyers at PNC Arena.
Stepan also collected his 500th career point in the Canes’ 3-1 victory, assisting on a Steven Lorentz goal in the second period. Jordan Martinook had the go-ahead goal with 3:50 left in regulation and Sebastian Aho then added an empty-netter in the final minute as the Canes extended their home-ice point streak to 13 games ( 12-0-1) with the Metro Division win.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or what style they want to play, this is the way hockey is going to be this time of the year,” Stepan said. “It ramps up and it becomes playoff hockey. You saw that today.”
Martinook’s goal, his third of the season, came on the redirection of a Vincent Trocheck shot. Trocheck, positioned near the blue line, winged a shot that Martinook tipped past goalie Martin Jones.
Making it special for Martinook was that his wife and young son, Chase, were at the game, noting, “He’s been asking for a goal the last month and I haven’t been getting him one. I know he’ll be pumped.”
Goaltender Frederik Andersen was back in net for the Canes (41-12-5) after sitting out a few games with an “upper-body” injury that he said Saturday was a precaution. Andersen was involved in a big collision during the March 3 game against Washington, saying he felt “a little bit off” after it and wanted to be certain he was not suffering from any concussion-related symptoms.
“We wanted to rule that out and make sure I didn’t go in and get another hit too early,” Andersen said. “Just making sure I didn’t put myself in danger in any way, and just ruling it out that it wasn’t a concussion.”
While he may have allowed a few more rebounds than he liked — the Flyers’ Derick Brassard scored off a rebound into the slot in the second period — Andersen, who had 28 saves in his 30th win of the season, was pleased with his play.
“Overall I felt pretty good,” he said.
Stepan downplayed his two personal milestones, saying simply, “The stars aligned.” But Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had more to say about the veteran forward, who had sat out nine of the past 11 games as a healthy scratch but had not let it affect his attitude or work habits.
“In my 30 years in the league, he’s the best I’ve ever seen at handling it,” Brind’Amour said. “Plain and simple. Every step of the way he’s been a pro.”
Stepan was used on the wing Saturday as Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 21, centered what Stepan called the “Kids Line.” After a scoreless first period, Stepan circled the net with the puck in the second and found Lorentz open near the far post for the shot and score — for Lorentz, his seventh goal of the season.
Lorentz quickly collected the puck to give to Stepan as a keepsake. Was that a younger player looking out for the old pro, Stepan was asked.
“He gets away with being a ‘young guy’ but he ain’t a young guy anymore,” Stepan said, smiling. “He is 25. He’s the middle-aged guy. But he gets it, he really does.”
The Flyers were 7-14-5 on the road this season and much of the speculation in Philadelphia centers on which players might be leaving at the March 21 trade deadline. But the Flyers (18-30-10) made the Canes work for this victory.
Brind’Amour tweaked his lines a bit, using Martin Necas on the Aho line and moving Andrei Svechnikov to the Trocheck line opposite Martinook. It worked for Martinook.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, that’s for sure,” Brind’Amour said. ‘I thought our first period was really good, that we had a lot of good opportunities and then they did a good job in their end of keeping us outside. We didn’t get a lot of Grade-A’s in the second. For the most part it was tough sledding.”
