EDMONTON, ALBERTA – The Carolina Hurricanes came back and salvaged a point, but lost 5-4 in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place on Tuesday.
Trailing 4-1 early in the second period, Carolina scored three unanswered goals to eventually tie the game and send it into overtime.
Tuomo Ruutu, Jordan Staal, Eric Staal, and Jeff Skinner all tallied goals in succession to piece together an impressive comeback that earned the Hurricanes a point when it was an unlikely possibility.
Goaltender Cam Ward was bombarded with shots early on and it took Taylor Hall only 93 seconds to give the host Oilers an early 1-0 lead.
Even while falling behind so quickly, Ruutu answered back for Carolina and tied the score 1-1, netting his fourth goal of the season on the power play just under five minutes later.
While resetting the margin back to zero, the Hurricanes’ slow reaction and play in defending an energetic and quick Edmonton offense presented problems throughout the opening period.
Edmonton added two more goals from Nail Yakupov and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and carried a 3-1 lead into the second period after outshooting the Hurricanes 14-6.
Ward eventually managed to settle into his game and ended up making 24 saves throughout while his teammates picked up their pace at the other end.
Carolina’s forwards put ample pucks to the net during the second and third periods as Oilers keeper Devan Dubnyk faced 28 total shots and was eventually worn down.
Trailing 4-1, Jordan Staal’s seventh goal of the season started the Hurricanes three-goal surge midway through the second period.
While trying to even the score, penalties throughout the game were an issue for Carolina as their 21 minutes were disproportionate to Edmonton’s four, and included a major penalty and ejection for boarding assessed to Riley Nash for his hit on Corey Potter midway during the third period.
Faced with killing off Nash’s five-minute major, the Hurricanes were in a situation that could have resulted in the game being put out of their reach, but they continued to work hard and were rewarded for it as captain Eric Staal scored an impressive shorthanded goal to narrow the deficit to one goal, 4-3.
“It was big,” Staal said of scoring the team’s league-leading sixth shorthanded goal of the season.
“We got to within one. We felt like we were playing a good game. We felt like we had momentum and yet we were killin’ five-minute majors and killin’ penalties in overtime. It was frustrating in that respect, but we stayed with it. We stayed battlin’ and picked up a big point.”
Skinner then tied the game with 5:14 to play as his spinaround slap shot from the left point made its way past multiple bodies before beating Dubnyk.
After earning the point for tying the score in regulation, a penalty to defenseman Justin Faulk for boarding Nugent-Hopkins during the overtime period became the difference-maker as Edmonton forward Jordan Eberle scored the game-winner at 1:48.
“Obviously we got it to overtime, it was a great job battling back,” Staal said.
“It’s not gonna’ be perfect every night. We showed some good jump battling back into the game. Unfortunately, we had to kill a lot of penalties, especially in the first period and then again in overtime, and they were able to capitalize. They’ve got some skill and they did that in the overtime goal.”