The Senators pinch out the Hurricanes

Four Senators goals outburn a Carolina overtime winner

Won the night, went dark

The Carolina Hurricanes won their game and still lost their flame. On qualification night this was a virtual match: each team played its own game, and the one that scored more went through. Carolina had finished 3rd in the league last season and the Ottawa Senators 26th. A year earlier, both had gone dark on qualification night. This time one of them would burn on, and the other would sit cold on the East's shelf while 19 candles stayed lit.

Four before the horn

In Salt Lake City, Ottawa settled it in one period against the Utah Hockey Club. Drake Batherson slapped one home at 11:43. Claude Giroux snapped another 1:23 later. Ridly Greig added a power-play snap shot at 18:05, and Brady Tkachuk snapped the fourth at 19:52, with eight seconds left in the period. Utah pulled Connor Ingram after he faced 8 shots, and Karel Vejmelka stopped all 14 he saw in relief. By then the Senators already had their four. Anton Forsberg stopped all 31 Utah shots, and none of them got through.

A comeback that came up short

In Edmonton, Connor McDavid scored twice for the Oilers, the second a power-play poke in the 2nd. Shayne Gostisbehere slapped in a power-play goal 44 seconds into the 3rd. Martin Necas tipped in the equalizer at 13:29, and Sebastian Aho slapped home the overtime winner 4:53 in. Frederik Andersen made 33 saves. Carolina scored three goals and won in Edmonton, but its flame was snuffed anyway because Ottawa had scored four.