The Carolina Hurricanes are in the midst of a West Coast road trip. Tonight, during the first period of their game against the San Jose Sharks, the Hurricanes lost their starting goalie, Frederik Andersen, who left the game after taking a shot off the mask; Anti Raanta replaced him in goal. The Hurricanes are tied 1-1 to the Sharks and are currently playing without Center Sebastian Aho, who is dealing with an upper-body injury. Andersen, this season entering tonight, was 2-0-0 with a 3.84 GAA and a .867 save percentage, and tonight, before the injury, he had stopped one of the two shots he faced.
The Hurricanes have started the season 2-1-0 with wins over the Ottawa Senators in their season opener at home and the Los Angeles Kings to kick off their West Coast road trip. The lone loss came on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks when they lost 6-3. Raanta was in the net for that one. If the injury is anything serious, the Hurricanes do have the goaltender depth with Pyotr Kochetkov, who is playing in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch due to the Hurricanes not having an AHL affiliate. Kochetkov this season is 1-0-0 with a 2.79 GAA and a .912 save percentage. Last season, when Andersen or Raanta sustained injuries, Kochetkov became the guy playing in 24 games, going 12-7-5 with a 2.44 GAA and a .909 save percentage. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious with Andersen, and he’ll be back in the net on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken.
