Goalie injuries are one of the biggest stories of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs so far, and they are hitting the Carolina Hurricanes especially hard.
Already playing without starting goalie Frederik Andersen, the Hurricanes lost Antti Raanta to an upper-body injury early in their 5-2 Game 2 against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. He did not return as the Hurricanes took a 2-0 series lead and continued their season-long dominance of the Bruins.
Carolina has now outscored Boston 26-4 in their five head-to-head meetings this season, winning all five games.
Raanta was injured when he was hit in the head by Bruins forward David Pastrnak. Pastrnak was initially assessed a five-minute major penalty but it was reduced to a two-minute minor for interference after a review.
With Andersen and Raanta injured the Hurricanes are now relying on 22-year-old rookie Pyotr Kochetkov. Kochetov appeared in three games for the Hurricanes during the regular season, posting a 3-0 record with a .902 save percentage. He stopped 30 of 32 shots in Wednesday’s win.
The Hurricanes won the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed in the regular season with Andersen and Raanta as their primary goalie duo after acquiring both of them over the offseason. Now they have none of them in the playoffs.
This is the second night in a row that a team has had to resort to its third string goalie. On Tuesday the Penguins had to turn to Louis Domingue in overtime after Casey DeSmith was injured in double overtime of their 4-3 triple overtime win against the New York Rangers. They are already playing without Tristan Jarry, their starting goalie.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.