The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Ottawa Senators in a drama-filled comeback Saturday night at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes (6-8-0) finally solved a hot Senators (7-4-3) netminder, who made 43 saves on the night, with seconds remaining in the third period to send the game into overtime where the Hurricanes top players led the team to a 3-2 victory.
Unlike the previous night’s game against Dallas, the Hurricanes started on time, playing their game right out of the gate.
Carolina sustained good offensive pressure in the first period, peppering Senators goalie Andrew Hammond with 14 shots, but couldn’t find a way to get one past him.
Ottawa went on a penalty spree in the first six minutes of the second period, giving Carolina three man-advantage opportunities – the second of which the Canes converted on.
Carolina forward Victor Rask won an offensive zone faceoff straight back to defenseman Justin Faulk who blasted a slapshot past Hammond, giving the Canes a 1-0 lead.
The Senators tied the game at one apiece later in the period on a power play goal of their own.
Ottawa forward Alex Chiasson, crashing the net while rushing into the Canes zone, received a pass from defenseman Patrick Wiercioch. The Canes defensemen failed to pick Chiasson, leaving him all alone for an easy tap in.
With a few minutes remaining in the second period, a Hurricanes turnover led to defenseman Chris Wideman scoring his first career NHL goal to give the Senators a 2-1 lead.
Wideman slipped behind the Hurricanes defense unnoticed and buried a cross-ice feed from forward Mika Zibanejad. Just like the previous goal, the Canes defense left goalie Cam Ward out to dry with no chance of making the save.
Despite the deficit the Hurricanes were playing well and just hoping to find a way to beat Hammond once again.
“I thought we were good coming down the stretch,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “We were good for the most part tonight. We talked about it this morning, we needed to be a desperate team. For the most part, I thought we were.”
Carolina ramped up the pressure in the third period, firing 18 shots on Hammond. He stopped all of them with the exception of final one which tied the game with 3.3 seconds left in the period.
Forward Jeff Skinner collected the puck around a bevy of bodies in front of the net and fired it past a sprawling Hammond with seconds remaining on the clock.
Forward Jordan Staal won the game for the Canes in sudden death 3-on-3 overtime with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle.
“[Jordan Staal] makes a world of difference,” Peters said. “He plays hard minutes. He plays against good players each and every night. He’s doing a lot of good things for us.”
The Canes best players have struggled to consistently produce this season, but with assists from Eric Staal and Justin Faulk, the game-winning goal included three of the Hurricanes top five highest paid players.
