The Carolina Hurricanes allowed three straight goals in the third period in a 4-3 shootout loss to the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in South Florida on Friday night.
After taking a three
goal in lead in the third period with less than 10 minutes remaining, the Panthers stormed back to tie the game with less than a minute left.
The Canes got on the board first courtesy of Jordan Staal, who buried his 10th of the year to cap off a flurry of net-front chances following a shot from the point by Shayne Gostisbehere. After scoring 13 goals in 75 games last season, the captain has found his scoring touch to start the season.
Both teams had chances the rest of the period, but the Hurricanes took their 1-0 lead into the second.
Throughout the second, Bussi continued to keep Florida off the board with a couple of huge stops, including a sprawling pad save on Sam Bennett.
The Hurricanes extended the lead less than two minutes into the third period when Sebastian Aho made no mistake, beating Sergei Bobrovsky five-hole on a breakaway. Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov both picked up assists on the goal.
Aho added his second of the night just six minutes later on the power play, ringing it post-and-in off a rebound. The goal marked Aho’s second consecutive multi-goal game, giving him 13 on the year.
It didn’t take long for Florida to answer and get on the board, with Brad Marchand finding the back of the net to cut the lead to two a little less than three minutes later.
Florida, with an empty net, added their second straight goal off a rebound from Bennett with a little over two minutes left in the game.
With the momentum on the Panthers side, Marchand found Sam Reinhart all alone in the slot. Reinhart’s shot trickled past Bussi to tie the game with less than a minute to go and send the game to overtime.
Jarvis went down early in overtime and headed to the locker room after a trip caused him to collide with the net.
Bussi came up big, making a couple timely saves to force the game to a shootout, Carolina’s fourth in five games.
Needing a goal to extend the shootout, Nikolaj Ehlers failed to beat Bobrovsky, who made a stick save.
Carolina will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night at 7 PM in the second of back-to-back road games in Florida, looking to bounce back.
