Canes crumble in 1st, fall 6-3 in Toronto


The Canes gave up three goals within the first 7 minutes of the first period and went on to loe, 6-3, to the Maple Leafs in Toronto. In Carolina's first game coming after the 4 Nations Faceoff break they played like a team that hadn't seen each other in two weeks. Poor decisions, worse puck management and a lack of precision added up to a 4-0 deficit after 20 minutes. That the Canes scored three times in a 2:41 span of the 3rd period to give themselves a chance to steal something -- ANYTHING -- out of this game is a borderline miracle. But, after Jaccob Slavin swept in a rebound to make it 4-3 with just under 5 minutes remaining, Mikko Rantanen passed up Carolina's last best chance to score passing into a crowded crease rather than shoot from the right face off circle. In fairness, Rantanen, who did pick up an assist tonight for his 3rd point in 7 games with the Hurricanes, was probably Carolina's best forward tonight. Shayne Gostisbehere scored his first goal since December 10 off a feed from Sebastian Aho for Carolina's first goal of the night. Andrei Svechnikov and Slavin had the others. Pyotr Kochetkov allowed 4 goals on 21 shots.