Brandon Bussi made 16 saves to earn the win in his NHL debut and five different Carolina players scored goals as the Hurricanes began a season-long six-game road trip with a 5-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Sean Walker, William Carrier, Eric Robinson, Shayne Gostisbehere and Jackson Blake scored goals and Logan Stankoven had two assists for Carolina, which extended its winning streak against the Sharks to eight games dating back to a 2-1 overtime loss on November 22, 2021.
Bussi, a 27-year-old Western Michigan product who made 111 starts for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, was claimed off waivers by Florida on Oct. 5 and was moved to a backup role behind Frederik Andersen after Pyotr Kochetkov suffered a lower-body injury in practice.
William Eklund scored for San Jose, which remained winless (0-1-2) in three games. Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 38 saves.
After a scoreless first period, Carolina took a 1-0 lead thanks to a delayed penalty at 1:24 of the second period on a Walker one-timer from inside the blue line that sailed through traffic and past Nedeljkovic’s glove side.
San Jose tied it up just over three minutes later on Eklund’s first goal, a wrist shot from the edge of the left circle that sailed past Bussi’s pads.
The Hurricanes regained the lead at 14:14 when Carrier, at the back of the net, scored a rebound in the crease of a shot from Alexander Nikishin.
Carolina extended the lead to 3-1 late in the period when Robinson, cutting toward the net, fired a backhand shot past Nedeljkovic’s glove side for his second goal. The score came just after Bussi stopped Adam Gaudette’s point-blank wrist shot.
Gostisbehere made it 4-1 early in the third period when he completed a tic-tac-toe sequence with Stankoven and Taylor Hall with a wrist shot blocker.
Blake extended the lead to 5-1 midway through the third period with Carolina’s fourth straight goal, firing a slap shot from above the left circle that flew off the left post past Nedeljkovic’s blocking side.
–Field level media
