The Carolina Hurricanes took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the team’s second game in just as many nights. After an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Canes rebounded with a 4-3 win over the Penguins in overtime Sunday night at Lenovo Center.
Carolina (24-14-2) came in struggling, just as the Penguins (17-17-7) entered the matchup looking to snap a four-game road losing streak.
“We have been lacking a little bit,” said center Sebastian Aho. “We have some good games, and then the next game might be totally different. There’s going to be wins and losses in this league but it has to look the right way.”
Carolina goaltender Dustin Tokarski got the start between the pipes for Carolina, having last played on Dec. 28. Tokarski got off to a rough start, letting in two goals early into the first frame, but soon settled into his position to help encourage the Canes’ offense to pick up the pace. Defensemen Brent Burns and Jaccob Slavin helped their goalie out multiple times, playing significantly more time than any other defensive pair with 24 minutes each.
Despite a desire to play better, the Canes made early mistakes that Pittsburgh cashed in on quickly. Less than five minutes into the game, a wrist shot from right wing Kevin Hayes put the Penguins up 1-0. A minute later, former Hurricane and left wing Michael Bunting lit the goal horn for the Penguins once more to give the visitors a steady 2-0 lead.
“We made a bad decision on the first goal, kind of giving an odd man rush up, and then they made a good play on the second one,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “You got to move on. And I thought after that we settled down and got to our game, especially in the second period. I just thought we stuck with it.”
Carolina needed a change and during the first intermission, it made it. Instead of passing the puck around the zone and allowing the Penguins to block shots, the Canes shot dramatically more in the second frame and it paid off.
“We found our game after the start and we didn’t really veer off it,” said center Seth Jarvis. “We had a couple of tough bounces, but that’s going to happen. But I like how we stuck to it and no one really got flustered.”
Jarvis put Carolina on the scorecard four minutes into the second frame with a wrist shot assisted by Aho. The Canes pushed hard in the Penguins’ zone, suffocating the Pittsburgh defense and shooting pucks on net, finishing with 14 shots on goal during the period to the Penguins’ five. Soon after the first goal, a counterattack from Aho led to a shot by defenseman Jalen Chatfield into the top left corner to tie the game a 2-2.
Before the horn sounded to signal the end of the second period, Jarvis received a pass across the ice from right wing Andrei Svechnikov and scored the go-ahead goal, giving Carolina its first lead of the night.
“Last night I should’ve probably had two or three [goals] so I didn’t even really sleep last night,” Jarvis said. “I was just so upset with myself. Just to get one felt really nice, then to be able to capitalize again — it was just really good for me. It was good for my confidence and just being able to know that I can score at some point.”
It wouldn’t take long into the third period for the Penguins to tie it right back up again. Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson blasted a slap shot past Tokarski to tie it at 3-3.
Pittsburgh almost took the lead — and the game — but Tokarski made a lunging save, leaving the puck in front of the net unguarded. But defenseman Dmitry Orlov shielded off Penguins players, allowing Chatfield to get the puck out of the Canes’ zone. With no more goals at the end of the third frame, the game went to extra time.
Heading into overtime, Aho had 599 career points. By the end of it he had 600, becoming only the third player in franchise history to reach this feat. With the puck bouncing off the boards, Aho passed to Orlov who took a shot on the Penguins net. The shot bounced off Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic and right onto Aho’s tape, allowing him to score the game-winning goal.
“He was having a great game, so a lot of times you could just read the body language,” Brind’Amour said. “He didn’t want to come out, you can tell when a guy’s had enough. He just wanted to keep going and I thought he was one of the best players out there, maybe the best player on the ice tonight.”
Next, the Canes will travel to Tampa Bay, Florida to take on the Lightning. The matchup is set for Tuesday with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
