Mikko Rantanen has scored his first goal for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, an important step in his career in the NHL after being traded from the Colorado Avalanche in a big move days earlier.
The Blackhawks were necessary participants in bringing about the Rantanen trade to the Canes, which relieves their salary cap. Chicago, to facilitate the trade, agreed to retain 50% of the salary of the 28-year-old forward, who ironically scored a goal to defeat them.
Rantanen made his Canes debut on Saturday, January 25th in a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders. He followed that up with an assist in a 4-0 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday. Finally, his third appearance with the Canes came with a goal, proving that his performance in Carolina is only getting better.
Rantanenās sensation in his first games with the Hurricanes
āItās going to take a little bit more time to get fully comfortable with everything on the ice, so it comes with instinct and no thinking at all, which was better today. I think we could have had a couple more goals there. But a lot of good players around me, so Iām happy,ā declared Rantanen after win over Blackhawks.
Mikko Rantanen of the Hurricanes
Why didnāt Sebastian Aho play in the win over the Blackhawks?
In the win over Chicago, Rantanen was joined by the Canesā top star, Sebastian Aho. The Carolina forwardās absence was due to illness. The same reason for Taylor Hallās unavailability. āConsidering what we were missing, and then we had a couple other guys that were not feeling 100 percent, thatās for sure,ā Carolina coach Rod BrindāAmour said.
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What is the next game for the Rantanen Canes?
Rantanen will be back on the ice as part of the Canesā offense when they take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night at PNC Arena, as Carolina looks to win their third straight game to stay in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
