The Carolina Hurricanes returned to form with a 5-3 defeat of the Nashville Predators on Friday, Feb. 18. The Canes improved on their 3-2 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers two days prior by staving off a late Nashville comeback.

Carolina (33-11-4) struggled to find its rhythm early, taking nine minutes to notch its first shot on goal. However, once defenseman Brady Skjei broke the ice with a nifty first-period goal, the Canes had the Predators (28-18-4) playing catch-up for the rest of the night.

“Both teams played really hard, especially early,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “To capitalize on a couple chances and that power play goal was big to get us ahead. I know [Nashville] got a couple [goals] there at the end, but I thought overall, both teams played hard.”

Thanks to a buzzer-beating goal by defenseman Jaccob Slavin at the end of the second period, the Hurricanes entered the third with a 3-1 lead. But much like the Panthers did, the Predators put all kinds of pressure on the Canes to try and get back in it.

“That goal at the end of the period by Slavo was huge,” said center Martin Nečas. “It gave us a two-goal lead [going] to the third, so that was huge.”

Right wing Andrei Svechnikov netted a power play goal to extend the lead to 4-1, but Nashville started chipping away in the final ten minutes. The Preds pulled goalie Juuse Saros with as many as six minutes to go, and it played off. The Predators scored a pair of goals using an extra attacker to whittle the Canes’ lead to 4-3 with under three minutes to go.

Goaltender Frederik Andersen stayed true to form, however, making several key saves in the dying minutes to keep his team in front. Svechnikov iced the game with an empty-netter in the final minute to secure the win.

“The energy was definitely there and brought that emotion to close it out,” Skjei said. “It got a little sketchy at the end there, but to close it out was really good. Definitely going to keep learning from this game.”

The win was more of a team effort than anything else for Carolina, as five Hurricanes boasted multi-point nights. Svechnikov led the charge with three, but Skjei, Slavin, Nečas and center Sebastian Aho also notched two. On the other end of the ice, Andersen saved 23 of 26 shots on goals despite the pair of goals allowed with an extra Nashville skater on the ice.

The Hurricanes will hit the road for a Metropolitan division matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20. Carolina might be without center and Pittsburgh native Vincent Trocheck for the trip, as Trocheck left the game early in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

“We’re still waiting to see if he’s going to be out for a little while,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ll probably know more in the morning.”