Hurricanes sputter to end of regular-season home schedule in loss to Maple Leafs

Chip Alexander, The News & Observer on Apr 13, 2025

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes have played their last home game of the regular season.

The next time they’re on home ice, the stakes will be decidedly higher, the game a lot more intense.

Still, there was incentive to win Sunday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. A victory would have been the Canes’ record 32nd at home, topping the 31 home wins in 2005-06, a season that ended with a Stanley Cup to celebrate.

But the Canes couldn’t do it. In a game that generally lacked pizzazz, the Maple Leafs took a 4-1 win at the Lenovo Center.

William Nylander, Auston Matthews and John Tavares each added to their goal totals and goalie Joseph Woll had most of the answers for the Leafs (50-26-4). Add in a first-period goal by Pontus Holmberg and that was enough.

Sebastian Aho had the Canes goal, picking up his 29th of the season on a third-period power-play score.

After two games on the road in Canada to close out the regular season, the Canes will return home to face the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“Everyone’s a pro here and everyone wants to be feeling good about their game going into the real deal,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said. “So we’ll learn from this and make sure we’re sharper next time, and when it matters everyone will be ready to go.”

Both teams played Saturday. The Canes (47-28-5) ripped the New York Rangers, 7-3, ending the Rangers’ playoff hopes. The Leafs, leaders in the Atlantic Division, took a 1-0 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens on Mitch Marner’s goal and the sharp goaltending of Anthony Stolarz.

The Leafs turned to Woll, who was 1-2-1 in his past four starts before Sunday, allowing nine goals in losses at Nashville and Anaheim. But he made some high-quality stops in protecting his crease while the the Leafs defused the Carolina offense.

The Canes did keep the puck in the Toronto zone much of the first period, constantly testing Woll, only to have the Leafs strike with 16.5 seconds left in the period for a 1-0 lead — Holmberg with the score to quiet the home crowd.

“It was one of our better starts and I liked how we played the whole period, until the last 20 seconds,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That took a little out of the boys.”

The Leafs, outshot 11-4 in the first, were much better in their defensive zone in the second period, getting sticks on pucks and limiting the Canes to two shots while increasing the lead. Matthews, gathering in a rebound, didn’t miss, picking up his 31st goal of the season.

“Our second wasn’t very good,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought we were OK with being OK, and that’s not good enough.”

The Maple Leafs, 11-2-1 in their past 14 games, quickly made it 3-0 in the third on Nylander’s 45th of the season.

The Canes had four minutes of power-play time in the third after defenseman Christopher Tanev was called for high-sticking and then tripping. The Canes used up all but 18 seconds before Aho struck on a one-timer off a Seth Jarvis pass.

Tavares picked up his 38th of the season late in the third — the veteran’s 31st career goal in 51 games against Carolina.

For Carolina, it’s now off for road games at Montreal and Ottawa. Then, on to the playoffs and the matchup with the Devils, beginning with two home games in the first-round series.

There was a time, for nine years running, when home-ice wins weren’t as plentiful for the Canes and the last home game was the last of the season; there was no postseason play.

That changed once Brind’Amour took over as head coach in 2018. The Canes will be in the playoffs for a seventh straight season as their fans have come to expect more games in April and May after the regular season.

“We’re at that point for sure,” Brind’Amour said Sunday. “But that’s good. That’s what we wanted. When you’re relevant like us, that’s the way it should be.

“When we got in the playoffs with seven or eight games left, I said that was a pretty big accomplishment, to still have that runway and kind of take a breather. That says a lot about the group and the year we’ve had.

“It’s a good thing. It shows our standards are a little higher than in the past.”

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