Carolina Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen walked in, pump faked and fired a shot past former Canes goalie Anton Khudobin in overtime to give the team a 3-2 victory against the Boston Bruins, its third straight win heading into the Christmas break. The Canes have now earned at least one point in 10 straight games at home and five straight overall.
Starting goalie Cam Ward, who has been excellent for the Canes (15-11-7) since the start of November, was a huge factor tonight, stopping 31 of 33 Bruins’ (18-14-4) shots and keeping Carolina in the game after a sluggish first two periods. The team erased a 2-0 deficit to come back and grab the win in overtime.
“That’s my job,” Ward said. “You’ve got to give your team an opportunity to get into the game. They were firing a lot of pucks at the net. I felt comfortable; I felt good for being on a back to back. I just wanted to give our team a chance and fortunately we were able to come back.”
The Canes did not get off to a good start in this one. The first several minutes of the opening period saw the home team play very sloppy defensively. Boston cashed in less than halfway through the period, as forward David Krejci circled the Canes net and found defenseman Torey Krug wide open at the left circle. Krug’s shot deflected in off forward Ryan Spooner’s skate for a 1-0 Bruins lead.
The Bruins picked up where they left off in the second period, as forward Brad Marchand tipped Spooner’s shot past Ward for a power-play goal and 2-0 Boston lead early in the period.
“We weren’t perfect early, and we knew that,” head coach Bill Peters said. “The guys were real good about staying with it. We got a spark off of that shorthanded goal; it gave us a little bit of life and then we started to move our feet a little bit.”
The Canes got some much needed momentum and cut the lead in half a little more than halfway through the second. With Boston on another powerplay, forward Jordan Staal stripped Bruins forward Austin Czarnik of the puck at the point and raced in on a short-handed breakaway, beating Khudobin blocker side to make it 2-1.
“It was nice to get that first one to settle the bench down a little bit and get the crowd into it a little bit more,” Staal said. “We were able to build off of it, I thought we did a good job from there on.”
Thanks in large part to Ward, Carolina entered the third period down one with a chance to tie, and did just that about seven minutes in. Defenseman Justin Faulk crept in from the point and fired one top shelf for his third goal in four games to make it 2-2.
Both teams had their chances in the rest of the third, but Ward and Khudobin held up to send the game to overtime.
The overtime winner for Teravainen, who was acquired in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks to add some more offensive punch to the Canes’ lineup this summer, was the first of the young Finn’s career.
“It was a pretty cool feeling to win the game, to help the team win,” Teravainen said. “It’s always a special moment.”
The Canes this season have certainly been no strangers to dominating a team early, leading after two periods and having the end result go against them. That includes a game in Boston a few weeks ago, where Carolina gave up a last-minute goal and lost in the shootout. Tonight, the team was able to flip that script.
“I thought we played an unbelievable game in Boston and came up short,” Staal said. “It was the other way around tonight. We continued to stay with the game we wanted to play and found a way to get two points.”
The Canes will now get four days off as part of the NHL’s mandated Christmas break, and will return to action Dec. 28 in Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.
