Power play leads Hurricanes to victory against Penguins

O’Connor gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 12:20 of the first period with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot.

Blake tied the score at 13:24 of the first period with a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle, set up by Eric Robinson’s pass behind the net, to make it 1-1. It was the 21-year-old’s second NHL goal in his last two games.

Necas gave Carolina a 2-1 lead with his first power play goal of the season at 6:52 of the second period, beating Blomqvist’s glove with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot.

Gostisbehere extended the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-1 with the second power play goal of the quarter at 17:13. This came after Michael Bunting was awarded a double minor for high sticking at 16:04.

“I think we just had a direction in the sense that we were going to move the puck quickly,” Gostisbehere said. “We wanted to see our pieces. We knew it wasn’t an overly aggressive penalty shootout. So for us it’s pretty nice to feel the puck out there, find our spots and find the chemistry and be rewarded with a few.”

Carolina went 2-4 with the man advantage on Friday; Pittsburgh was 0 of 5.

“I just thought the guys moved the puck a little better and more efficiently,” Brind’Amour said. “Then a little more shooting mentality. For the most part, we did a good job with the submissions. Won a few faceoffs. All these little things are just important. Obviously we were able to capitalize on that.”