Nashville Predators vs Carolina Hurricanes Match Player Stats On Mar 11, 2021

Morgan Geekie scored his first two goals of the season and the Carolina Hurricanes rode a span of three goals in 2 1/2 minutes of the first period to a 5-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.

The Hurricanes won their seventh game in a row.

Geekie produced Carolina's first and fourth goals, the latter coming in the second period.

Brock McGinn, Dougie Hamilton and Martin Necas also scored for the Hurricanes. Jake Bean and Andrei Svechnikov both supplied two assists, and Hamilton added an assist.

Carolina goalie James Reimer made 15 of his 32 saves in the first period, but he was denied a shutout when Nick Cousins scored with 4:33 remaining.

Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne stopped 18 shots while playing in his sixth consecutive game. He was replaced in the third period after allowing the fifth goal. Kasimir Kaskisuo, making his season debut and playing in his second NHL game, made three saves in relief.

The Predators were in their third game of an eight-game road stretch. They fell to 1-1-1 in those outings, which include a 3-2 overtime loss to Carolina on Tuesday.

Geekie, a 22-year-old center, had three goals and an assist in two career regular-season games prior to this season. Before Thursday, he had no points in nine games during the 2020-21 campaign.

Geekie, who appeared in an NHL game for the first time since Feb. 11, put a stick on Bean's delivery and it ricocheted into the net for a power-play tally to open the scoring at 9:06 of the first period.

McGinn posted his goal off a pass from Warren Foegele at 11:11 after the Predators did a sloppy job trying to get the puck out of the zone.

Just 16 seconds later, Hamilton was left alone in the slot, and he converted off Svechnikov's pass from behind the net.

Carolina ended up with only six first-period shots, and it scored on half of those.

The Hurricanes played minus injured center Vincent Trocheck, who shares the team's scoring lead with 24 points. He tops the team with 13 goals.

The Predators were without defenseman Dante Fabbro, who drew a two-game suspension for his elbow to the head of McGinn.

--Field Level Media