Martin Necas scored two goals and earned two assists to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.
Necas extended his point streak to 13 games. He has 10 goals and 17 assists during that span.
Eric Robinson had a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, who have won 11 of their past 13 games. Andrei Svechnikov also scored a goal and goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 29 saves to earn his ninth victory in 11 starts.
Jake Neighbours scored a goal and Joel Hofer made 20 saves for the Blues, who are 1-4-1 in their past six games.
St. Louis struck first when Jordan Kyrou stole the puck in front of the Carolina net and fed Neighbours for an open shot on the weak side 6:05 into the game.
After the Blues controlled much of the first period, the Hurricanes capitalized with the man advantage to tie the score 25 seconds before the break.
Necas fired a diagonal pass from the left circle to the right post to set up Svechnikov’s power-play tip-in.
Carolina moved ahead 2-1 by capitalizing on a Blues turnover 17 seconds into the second period. Hofer’s errant pass led to Dmitry Orlov’s shot from the center point and Robinson’s conversion of the long rebound.
The Blues outshot the Hurricanes 11-5 in the second period and had several scoring opportunities. Kyrou had a clean break-in, but Kochetkov stopped his backhand shot and steered away his follow-up as well to keep the Hurricanes ahead.
A few shifts later, Kochetkov made a glove save to deny Pavel Buchnevich’s break-in.
The Hurricanes increased their lead to 3-1 on a three-on-three rush. Necas jumped into the slot to score off Robinson’s pass with 7:34 left in the second period.
Necas made it 4-1 with 3:13 left in the game with a snap shot from the slot via Robinson’s touch pass after a faceoff win.
–Field Level Media
