Canes, Martinook rally back with goal scoring outpour

Dec 2, 2022 - 4:12 AM

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The Carolina Hurricanes won a complete whiplash of a game over the St. Louis Blues thanks in large part to the heroics of one Jordan Martinook who picked up his second career hat trick Thursday night in a 6-4 victory at Enterprise Center.

That game started out looking like it was going to be a long night for the goal deprived Hurricanes but in a flash the game completely changed.

Through the first 20 minutes, the pressing question was if Blues netminder Jordan Binnington was even going to surrender just one goal after robbing Jordan Staal twice with big saves in the first.

And then when St. Louis went up by two goals early in the second, it felt like it was going to be tough sledding from there on out.

But a power play tally on a blast from the point by Brent Burns shifted the complexion of the game. With Andrei Svechnikov taking up real estate in front of the net, a blinded Binnington had no chance to see the puck, but it seemed that he felt he was impeded as he continued to motion to the officials following the goal.

It was obvious he was shaken when the goal wasn’t reviewed because the next two shots found their way past him in quick succession.

The Canes forced a turnover and set up Martinook for his first of the night on a snipe shot wrister.

Then Martin Necas rushed into the zone and set up Seth Jarvis at the top of the circle for another corner snipe.

Three goals, 64 seconds, Canes leading.

The momentum had completely shifted and it was looking like Carolina might cruise to victory, but then Antti Raanta let in another brutal goal to Krug at the point and it was tied 3-3 after two.

However, Raanta seemed to not be fully alright following the second and in came rookie sensation Pyotr Kochetkov.

Kochetkov weathered a big St. Louis push to start the third period and as the clock started to count down, it seemed like the Hurricanes were in store for yet another overtime.

But Jordan “Franchise” Martinook put the team on his back, beat out Nick Leddy down the left side and ripped home a shot to give his team a lead again.

The Staal dangled his way past the Blues to ice the game with an empty-net goal. Or at least it should have been, but St. Louis pulled Binnington again and this time the Blues struck off of a faceoff win as Jordan Kyrou found Ryan O’Reilly in a great spot right in the slot.

But the Canes weren’t going to let this one slip away and Martinook raced down the ice to beat out icing on a clear and tucked the puck neatly into the net for his hat trick.

It must have been a bit cathartic for the Canes to pile on that many goals again and hopefully they saved some up for their next stop on the road trip, a Saturday night matchup with the LA Kings.