The Hurricanes, after losing the lead late in the third, fought through their second overtime in two days, finding a different outcome than the day before and walking away with the win.
The Canes (34-15-6), allowing two goals with less than seven minutes to play and blowing their 2-0 lead, secured a 3-2 win over the Kings (23-27-24) early in overtime. Finding the net a little over a minute in, the Canes came out on top and extended their home point streak to eight games.
Regulation and overtime held a similar theme as the Canes took possession and skated circles around the Kings for the majority of the both, but the decisive play came during 3-on-3 action. After fumbling the puck, center Seth Jarvis held it at his stick and found center Sebastian Aho in the neutral zone. Aho skated the puck through the defenders and let off a rocket outside of the paint, finding the back of the net and securing the win.
Before blowing the lead late, the Canes looked the part as an Eastern Conference frontrunner. The opening goal, and the only goal of the first two periods, came from center Jordan Staal on the power play. A slashing call to winger Kevin Fiala sent him to the box and put the Canes up a player. Wasting no time, the Canes won the face-off and got the puck to winger Andrei Svechnikov, who was waiting at the top of the zone. Sending the puck in, Staal got a deflection and nicked the puck past goaltender Anton Forsberg just three seconds into the power play.
“We talked about it before; that was the biggest thing,” Staal said. “Having a plan is always big, and that was kind of a play that we were thinking of running, and it worked. It doesn’t always work, but if you execute it well, you’re going to get a good chance, and tonight it went in.”
Unable to execute, the Kings didn’t get on the board till late in the third. Twenty-four seconds after defenseman Alexander Nikishin put the Canes up by two, the Kings capitalized on a counter-attack and found center Samuel Helenius out wide. Helenius, left wide open by the Canes, fired the puck into the back of the net, cutting the Canes’ lead in half.
With less than five minutes left in regulation, the Kings won the face-off to the right of goaltender Brandon Bussi and skated it around the back of the net. Passing through the paint, winger Quinton Byfield crashed in and zipped the puck past Bussi, giving his team a chance to take it to overtime and helping the Kings walk away with a single point.
The Hurricanes host the Ottawa Senators at the Lenovo Center on Tuesday, Feb. 3, with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
