Logan Stankoven Hat Trick Powers Canes Past Canucks

Logan Stankoven scored a natural hat trick, the first three-goal game of his career, as the Carolina Hurricanes routed the Vancouver Canucks 7-2 on Thursday night in Raleigh, the Associated Press reported.

That is the kind of night the defending Stanley Cup champions needed. Carolina finally won at home on its third try this season, and the Hurricanes have now won three straight to climb to 3-1-1.

Three goals, three ways

Stankoven got all three in a row, and he got them every way you can. The first came short-handed at 13:13 of the second period, the first short-handed goal of his career. The second came on the power play at 19:02 of the second. The third came at even strength with 8:24 left in the game.

That stretch pushed Carolina's lead from 4-1 to 7-1, and the hat trick gave Stankoven 100 career points. He put five shots on goal in 15:08 of ice time, per the box score.

Fan take for daily fantasy hockey players: a forward who scores on both special teams units in the same night is a name worth circling on the next slate.

The rest of the rout

Carolina never led in either of its first two home games last week. This time it scored three goals in the first 10 minutes. K'Andre Miller opened the scoring at 1:18, and Andrei Svechnikov added two power-play goals less than two and a half minutes apart. Mark Jankowski also scored.

Defenseman Sean Walker had four assists after never having more than two in a game in his career. Shayne Gostisbehere, Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall added two assists apiece, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 18 saves. The Canes outshot Vancouver 34-20. Carolina's power play scored three times, and Vancouver did not score on the man advantage at all. When the special teams look like that, the Hurricanes are a nightmare to play.

For Vancouver, Jake DeBrusk scored both goals and Elias Pettersson had two assists. Kevin Lankinen stopped 12 of 18 shots through two periods before Leevi Merilainen took over for the third and made 14 saves. It was the first stop of a six-game road trip for the Canucks, who head to New Jersey on Saturday.

Up next

The Hurricanes visit Chicago on Saturday night. Canes fans, this is the version of the champs you remember. Make it four straight in Chicago and the slow start is officially ancient history.