It took 65 minutes of hockey and a shootout, but the Carolina Hurricanes got back in the win column. Carolina defeated the Nashville Predators 4-3 Sunday at PNC Arena after dropping two straight games earlier this week.
Forwards Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Canes (10-8-4) in the shootout, and goalie Scott Darling stopped all three Predators (14-6-3) shooters. Carolina got goals in regulation from forwards Josh Jooris, Victor Rask and Justin Williams.
“Both sides were playing some good hockey,” Darling said. “Letting in the third goal was my bad; we should have won in regulation, but the boys sucked it and did an extra five minutes of hard work for me, then scored in the shootout.”
Carolina was forced to kill off a tripping penalty to forward Jordan Staal with 2:57 in overtime, but got the job done, largely thanks to two key shot blocks from Canes forward Joakim Nordstrom on clappers from Predators defenseman PK Subban.
“That’s my job out there,” Nordstrom said. “I didn’t really have much of a choice. It hurts way more to see a puck go in the back of the net than to get hit by it. It’s an easy choice for me.”
Carolina took a 3-2 lead on the second of back to back power plays early in the third period; Williams batted down forward Derek Ryan’s shot in front of the net and stuffed it by Preds goalie Juuse Saros on his backhand.
“That was a big game,” Williams said. “Really big. Especially finishing up our homestand here. We go on the road; we’ve got games in hand but we’re dropping in our division. We need to get boosted back up, and that was a big step.”
Nashville tied the game with 8:45 to play; Darling’s errant clearing pass went right to Predators forward Kevin Fiala, who found forward Craig Smith on the back door for the easy tap in to make it 3-3.
The Canes wasted little time jumping out to a 1-0 lead in this one with Jooris’ breakaway goal less than four minutes in.
“I thought it was high-end game; I think it might have been the best game that we’ve been involved in all year between both teams,” head coach Bill Peters said. “I think they’re a real good team. We’re a real good team when we play properly and I thought we did that today. Both teams looked like they were dialed in. I thought it was very competitive. We were physical, which helps us. A lot of good things here these last two games.”
The Predators got a golden chance to tie it with a breakaway for forward Ryan Johansen about halfway through the first period, but Darling came up with a big save to keep the Hurricanes ahead.
Nashville forward Viktor Arvidsson did tie the game at one with 4:24 to play in the first, deking around Canes blueliner Noah Hanifin and snapping a shot from the left circle over Darling’s glove.
The Predators took a 2-1 lead about halfway through the second; defenseman Mattias Ekholm beat a screened Darling with a point shot on the power play.
The Canes tied it at two barely a minute later, as Rask swiped home the rebound of a point shot by defenseman Noah Hanifin for his first point 10 games.
“I know this is the way I have to play,” Rask said. “I thought our team played really well tonight.”
Carolina finishes its two-game homestand at 2-2-0, and will hit the road to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets Tuesday night and start a stretch of 10 of 12 games on the road.
