The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4, in a shootout on Tuesday night at the Lenovo Center to get back in the win column.
Jackson Blake scored the winner in the shootout, propelling the Canes to the win. Two goals, both with an empty net in the final three minutes of the third period, allowed the Penguins to send the game to a shootout but Carolina was able to stifle the comeback attempt. With the victory, the Canes have a 9 point lead over Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division.
The Canes got on the board first after Logan Stankoven buried his 12th goal of the year from the slot. The original shot came from Mike Reilly, who made a great play crashing the net.
After Carolina controlled the first 15 minutes, the Penguins were able to flip the script and generate some good chances over the final couple minutes.
Nikolaj Ehlers went down late in the first on a hit in the corner with what looked to be like a lower body injury, but returned in the second period.
Pittsburgh tied the game up less than 20 seconds later courtesy of Anthony Mantha to make the game 1-1.
The Penguins took a 2-1 lead on their third power play of the second period at the 11:44 mark. Tensions between the two teams hit a new level during the period, with multiple net-front srcums.
It didn’t take long into the third period for the Canes to tie up the game. Jankowski got his own rebound on a pass from William Carrier less than three minutes in to make it 2-2.
Less than a minute later, Jarvis took a puck off the boards and went backhand to forehand on a breakaway to give Carolina a one goal lead. In just a minute, the Canes flipped the game around.
Alexander Nikishin gave the Canes a 4-2 advantage with his ninth goal on a 5-on-3 for his second point of the net.
When it looked like Carolina had the game wrapped up with a two goal lead and under three minutes to play, the Penguins added two empty net goals to tie the game, forcing overtime.
The Canes were able to kill off a Pittsburgh power play in overtime to send the game to a shootout.
In the shootout, Blake beat Stuart Skinner five-hole in the third round to give Carolina the win.
Next up for the Canes is a battle with the Blues on Thursday at 7 PM.
