Up until recently, a Pittsburgh-rooted institution had owned the naming rights to the home venue of the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C. for 12 years.
But in August, the PNC Arena morphed into the Lenovo Center.
Yet, regardless of the corporate logo affixed to the front of the building, the Hurricanes have owned the Penguins within the confines of the facility in recent years.
That trend held firm Thursday as the Hurricanes defeated the Penguins, 5-1, extending a streak of futility for the visitors to seven games (0-4-3) in the City of Oaks.
The Penguins’ last road win against this Metropolitan Division foe was a 3-0 triumph Dec. 22, 2019.
Further amplifying the Penguins’ malaise, forward Cody Glass did not record a shift beyond the 19-minute mark of the first period. Per one of the team’s social media accounts, he suffered an undisclosed injury.
Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 13 of 18 shots as his record slipped to 2-3-2.
Within the context of the ongoing season, the Hurricanes saw a winning streak grow to eight games.
It took the Hurricanes all of 52 seconds to open the scoring when forward Jordan Martinook found his second goal on his team’s first shot of the game.
Following a neutral zone turnover by Penguins forward Lars Eller, Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal made an offensive zone entry on the right wing.
As Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson maintained a sound gap against Staal, his defensive partner, Erik Karlsson, lost track of Martinook hustling in from the left wing. That led to Staal slipping a sharp pass below the lower left hashmark where Martinook deflected in a forehand shot over Nedeljkovic’s blocker on the near side.
The Hurricanes’ third shot resulted in forward Jack Roslovic’s eighth goal at 8:47 of the first period.
Off a three-on-one rush into the offensive zone, Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho fed a pass from the left wing to the slot for Roslovic who pumped a wrister by Nedeljkovic’s blocker.
Roslovic struck again at 9:26 of the second period.
Taking a pass in the Penguins’ left circle, Roslovic gripped and ripped a wrister by Nedeljkovic’s glove on the far side.
The Hurricanes poured it on when defenseman Jaccob Slavin scored his first goal at 13:52 of the middle frame.
From behind the Penguins’ net, Aho banked a pass off the left half-wall to the left point for Slavin who wound up and chopped a one-timer to the near side by Nedeljkovic’s blocker.
The sluice gates opened 127 seconds into the third period when forward Eric Robinson scored his third goal.
From the right wing of the offensive zone, Hurricanes forward Martin Necas slipped a sharp pass between Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea and forward Jesse Puljujarvi for Robinson who deflected a forehand shot by Nedeljkovic’s blocker.
Penguins forward Blake Lizotte got his team on the scoreboard at 5:08 of the third period via his second goal.
Settling a bouncing puck in the Hurricanes’ right circle, Puljujarvi whipped a low wrister on net. Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made the initial save but had trouble containing the rebound. Jalen Chatfield cleared the rebound from the blue paint with the backhand of his stick but dealt something of a pass to the hashmarks for Lizotte who leaned on his left knee and fired a wrister into a mostly vacant cage.
Notes: The Penguins’ power play was 0 for 3 with eight minutes of time on the man advantage. … Penguins forward Kevin Hayes was scratched for the first time this season because of an undisclosed injury. Coach Mike Sullivan told reporters in Raleigh that Hayes was labeled as “day to day.”
