After being down 3-0 in the second period, the Canes came back to force overtime thanks to two late goals from center Sebastian Aho. Newly acquired left wing Jake Guentzel called game in the shootout to give Carolina two points in the standings it probably didn’t deserve.
With a shootout win, the Canes (41-20-6) continue to solidify a spot in the playoffs and continue to chase the first-place New York Rangers in the Metropolitan division. The Maple Leafs (38-19-9), although rocking the St. Pats uniforms, had all their luck run out by the end of regulation.
The first period saw both teams struggle to set up in the offensive zone as the puck continued to get clogged up in the neutral zone. Both goaltenders, Ilya Samsonov and Pyotr Kochetkov, only had to make nine saves each to keep the game tied at zero entering the first intermission.
Both Russian netminders struggled early on in the season but have gotten back into the groove recently. Kochetkov was named NHL Rookie of the Month in February and Samsonov, including this loss, has won 13 of his last 16 starts after being sent down to the AHL earlier in the year.
Although both goalies had themselves a period, the offensive juice got flowing in the second, especially for the Maple Leafs who scored three goals in the first 12 minutes of the period. Left wing Nicholas Robertson, center John Tavares and right wing William Nylander all notched a goal for Toronto on breakaways.
Three separate times the Canes turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and all three times the Maple Leafs punished them by scoring a rush goal on Kochetkov, leaving the goalie out to dry. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour could only look on and shake his head as his team was suddenly three goals down.
However, the Canes didn’t hang their heads and within a minute and a half, Carolina was on the board courtesy of left wing Jordan Martinook. Center Jordan Staal forechecked and gained possession of the puck, eventually finding its way to defenseman Brent Burns. Burns fired a shot from the point, and Martinook cleaned up the rebound to cut the deficit to two.
The Canes got to the man-advantage late in the second period and with less than three seconds left in the period, center Seth Jarvis scooped and scored. Off a shot from Guentzel, who earned his second point as a Cane, Jarvis collected the rebound and elevated the puck in tight to swing the momentum in the Canes’ favor.
Similar to their last game versus the Panthers, Jarvis scored a late-period goal, but unlike that Florida game, the Maple Leafs responded right out of the gate in the third. Center David Kampf capitalized on yet another neutral zone turnover as he found some space and ripped a shot past Kochetkov to bring the lead back to two.
Throughout the remainder of the third period, the Canes were knocking at the door but couldn’t find twine until a miracle happened with less than two minutes left in the game. Two late goals by Aho, with the goalie pulled, sent the game to overtime against all odds.
Pulling their goalie while on the powerplay, the Hurricanes had a two-man advantage, and defenseman Dmitry Orlov gave a shot pass to Guentzel, but it found the tape of Aho who made no mistake and put it home. Guentzel did get a touch, making it his first career multi-point game as a Hurricane.
Now within one, Carolina continued to push, and after pulling the goalie again, Aho scored on a behind-the-back tip-in that beat Samsonov to the low-left pad with less than 10 seconds left in the game. All of the noise was sucked out of Scotiabank Arena, and Carolina had suddenly stolen at least a point.
The Hurricanes survived a tough overtime period where Kochetkov had to make six saves and sent it to the shootout. With a chance to win the game, Brind’Amour sent out Guentzel who went forehand, backhand then five-hole to ice the game.
