Stankoven scores first NHL hat trick as Hurricanes rout Canucks 7-2 at Lenovo Center

The Story

The Carolina Hurricanes rolled over the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 at Lenovo Center on Thursday, winning for the third straight time.

Logan Stankoven led the way with his first career NHL hat trick, scoring in three different ways: a shorthanded goal, a power-play goal, and an even-strength tally. The hat trick came after K’Andre Miller scored for Carolina 78 seconds in, putting the Hurricanes ahead early off a rebound from the left circle.

Carolina then turned the game in its favour on the man advantage. Andrei Svechnikov scored back-to-back power-play goals 2:14 apart to extend the lead to 3-0 after one period. Mark Jankowski added to the scoring at 3:20 of the second period to make it 4-0.

Stankoven completed his natural hat trick with goals later in the second period, including the shorthanded strike and another special-teams goal before the stanza ended. Another even-strength goal in the third capped the night for Stankoven and marked his 100th NHL point. Vancouver added a late goal, but Carolina held on for the win.

The Hurricanes’ power play was perfect, going 3-for-3 against Vancouver. Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves on 20 shots for Carolina.

Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said after the game, “We’ve played a great team game here the last little stretch. We got rewarded for it tonight. Tonight was kind of a weird game, that way. Once it kind of gets out of hand a little, both teams are not really sticking to the way you want to do it, but I like the way we’ve played here the last few games.”

Stankoven described his performance as the result of preparation, saying, “It feels awesome. Just preparation and work that I’ve done over the summers (shows). Each year I try and come back and be a bit better version of myself. I think goal-scoring and finishing are something that’s not easy to do in this league, so I’m going to try and continue to work on that. (There were) some great plays by my linemates as well. It was a fun night.”

Svechnikov added, “It gives you lots of confidence, right away, from the start. (I’m) trying to play hard and play my game. Hopefully, it’ll be staying that way.” Sean Walker said Carolina was “getting closer and closer back to our style of play,” adding, “These last couple of games have been more Hurricanes hockey, and when we’re doing that, we’re really hard to play against.”

Carolina next travels to Chicago to begin a weekend back-to-back set against the Blackhawks on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Hurricanes then return home to host the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 6:45 p.m. ET.