This round of NHL Predictions sees the Carolina Hurricanes traveling west to take on the Dallas Stars. This is the first matchup of these cross-conference teams this year. Carolina wrapped up their homestand with a 1-0 overtime victory over the New Jersey Devils Saturday night. It was a sloppy game for Carolina but goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov and the penalty kill stood tall to squeeze out the tight win. Carolina now shifts gears from having a stint at home with a road trip out west that starts in Dallas.
Meanwhile, Dallas enters this contest after a tight 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Tyler Seguin scored two in that one to bring his goals total up to 19 for the year. Roope Hintz leads the Stars with 22 and Jake Oettinger has been steady in net with a 2.93 GAA and .905 SV%.
This is another matchup of two heavyweights as Dallas leads the Central Division with 70 points while Carolina sits in second in the Metropolitan Division with 65. Both look to stay in the win column here but should expect a tough matchup. Here are three keys to a Carolina victory.
NHL Predictions: Carolina Hurricanes vs Dallas Stars
Three Keys to Victory for Carolina
Tighten Up
While the Hurricanes pulled out an exciting end for the fans at PNC Arena on Saturday night, the game was won on the back of goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov and the penalty kill. Even though the effort was there, the team looked all out of sorts. They couldn’t seem to settle the puck, make a clean pass or break the puck out efficiently. They had a season-worst 31 giveaways in that contest and gave the Devils tons of opportunities to jump ahead.
In addition, the team took four penalties against the Devils and six the game before against the Colorado Avalanche. Many of them were mental mistakes like delay of game for sending the puck over the glass or too many men. While the penalty kill has been a bright spot on the team, spending half a period on the kill is not usually the best game plan. The Stars are a top-three team in goals scored per game with 3.65 so mental mistakes have to be limited in this one. Carolina needs to keep up the intensity but limit turnovers and get back to their game.
Svechnikov Back in the Saddle
The Hurricanes received a nice surprise Saturday night when Andrei Svechnikov returned to the lineup. Injuries have been an unfortunate recurring thing for Svechnikov this season. He has only played 30 games so far. But over that span, he has 11 goals and 19 assists. Before his time away due to injury, he was electric and playing some of his best hockey in his career. He had a place on the top line with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen and they were working. He also was having success on the power play and it was driving the Hurricanes.
In his return against the Devils, Svechnikov looked a little off. It’s understandable given the time he was away. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t the high-level Svechnikov that everyone saw before. Given the poor play of the entire team and the lack of scoring, some of this wasn’t entirely on him. He actually had two shots and five hits in that game. But for Carolina to pull out a victory here, Svechnikov having a big game could be huge. Now he has one game back to warm up so let’s see what he does in Dallas.
Necas Needs to Shoot
Sticking with another individual player for Carolina here, Martin Necas has been a top performer for the Hurricanes since he also returned from an injury. This was highlighted by his first-period hat-trick against the Avalanche. Necas is a player that has tons of individual skill and is very fast. When he starts going with the puck he can dazzle you with both his speed and stickhandling to split defencemen. However, the ying to that yang is that he also tends to almost play faster than the rest of his body and teammates can keep up with. For every dangle through three defencemen with a shot he gets, he also stickhandles into traffic and loses it or tries to make a drop pass to no one. But with all of that, it’s no secret he has been a big part of Carolina’s offence lately.
One thing about Necas is that he seems to be way more effective when he takes on a shoot-first mentality. Carolina having a shooter is also something the team needs. Against Colorado, he was tied for the team lead in shots with five. However, against New Jersey, Necas was only credited with one shot. But it was impactful. The overtime game-winner against New Jersey came from Necas making a sharp move to the middle of the ice and firing a shot. The rebound popped out and Aho scored by hitting the puck out of mid-air.
This has been a consistent theme this year for Necas. When he adopts a sniper mentality and shoots the puck, typically good things happen. When he tries to do too much and “over-pass”, it’s less effective. Necas needs to get back to shooting the puck with authority against Dallas.
Prediction Time
With two top teams who only see each other twice a year, this could be a hard-fought game. Dallas has the home-ice advantage which arguably will be most important in that it gives them last change. Interestingly, both teams feature large contingents of Finnish players with both Hintz and Aho leading their respective sides. Carolina will need to clean up their game from Saturday and get some big contributions from individuals. If they can, they could leave Dallas with another win.
Prediction: Carolina wins 3-2
Main Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
