“Ride Captain Ride” – Hurricanes 4, Jets 3

Team Captain, Jordan Staal scored twice and Brandon Bussi held the fort in goal to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.

The win improves the team’s record to 14-5-2 and keeps them at first in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference.

Staal is riding a hot streak as he scored just 16 seconds into the game, the second time this season he scored on his first shift of the game.

After the Jets tied the score and then went on to take a 2-1 lead, Staal scored again three minutes into the second period on a sniped shot from the slot area.

With the score tied 2-2, Jarvis and Aho combined for another shorthanded goal to make it 3-2, Canes.

Aho sprinted ahead on a breakaway but Eric Comrie stopped the 5-hole attempt. Jarvis was there to clean it up though for his 11th goal of the season.

It was the 10th career shorthanded tally of his career.

Early in the third period, Andrei Svechnikov blasted in a one-timer off a ridiculous pass by Nikolaj Ehlers, to give the Hurricanes a much needed insurance goal and a 4-2 lead.

The powerplay goal moved the Canes to 31st in the league with the man advantage, one spot ahead of Calgary.

The Jets would score again to make it 4-3, but Bussi played very well down the stretch to earn the 5th win of his NHL career.

He improved his stats to 5-1-0 with a GAA of 2.67 and a SV% of .896.

According to the broadcast, Brind’Amour said he wanted to go with Pyotr Kochetkov in net, but the Russian said he was not feeling well.

In a surprising move to most observers, the coach scratched Alexander Nikishin for this game. Tripp Tracy said that it could just be a scratch for rest, and not for a specific negative reason.

Still, Nikishin has the best plus/minus on the team, has more points than most other blueliners, (without benefit of powerplay time), and he leads the team with 50 hits and is second in blocked shots with 28.

The coach was not asked about the benching after the game.

Next up will be an afternoon affair in Buffalo on Sunday.

Game Summary – https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20252026/GS020333.HTM

Event Summary – https://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20252026/ES020333.HTM

Quotes and team recap – https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/recap-staal-strikes-twice-as-canes-ground-jets

Interesting video captured here where Lowry ragdolls two Canes.