Carolina Hurricanes: Three Games that Saved the Season.

3. Game 5: Carolina Hurricanes at Minnesota Wild, October 13, 2018

It was only the fifth game of the young Carolina Hurricane’s season. After a rocky start on home ice against the Islanders, the team held the line against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio and then defended PNC in barn burners with the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. It was only their second road game of the season. Could the league leaders keep pushing?

The Minnesota wild was their first true test of the season. Not as far as opponent goes, they already played two eventual playoff teams. But it was the first time, a game felt like it was going to slip away from them and they were going to skate away with nothing.

For the most part the game was extremely back and forth, it was clear this was going to be a barn burner from the very beginning. Jordan Staal put the team on the board first, but that lead was erased and the teams went into the locker rooms after twenty tied. Brett Pesce opened the scoring in the second and Carolina took a 2-1 lead to start the third.

That is when things got out of hand quickly for the Carolina Hurricanes. Within the first six minutes of the third, the Wild had both erased the Carolina lead and took one for themselves. It wasn’t until at least halfway through the period that Sebastian Aho took matters into his own hands and erased the wild lead.

However that sigh of relief matched with gut pain associated with being tied late in a game where anyone can take the lead only lasted for 6 minutes and 25 seconds because the wild managed to score again to take the lead for the second time in the game.

The clock began to tick down as Carolina fired shot after shot at the wild netminder with little chances given. They would end the game having shot an incredible 57 shots on goal. Curtis McElhinney vacated his net to allow the extra skater in hopes to just tie the game and give them a chance. Then the Captain did this:

That goal in that game was a huge moment for Carolina Hurricanes fans everywhere. Firstly, I just have one question for Justin Williams: HOW? he collects this puck from behind the net and shoots it from behind the net AND outside the trapezoid through two Wild players and sneaks it behind the netminder. To put an exclamation point on this goal, it hits inside portion of the far post.

As ridiculous as the shot was there are three things to mind and take from this goal. First it was scored at the 58:51 mark of the game. There was only 69 (nice) seconds left in the game. Secondly, McElhinney had been out of his net for exactly a minute. That means that Carolina kept a solid and finally rewarding fore-check for at least that long.

Finally, and probably most importantly that goal was Sebastian Aho’s third point of the night. Another multi point game for the Finnish phenom and you would forgive him if he felt that he had done all he could that night if Carolina skated away with only a single point after that long night. But Aho was not done and we would refuse to skate away with anything other than a win:

Now I know what you are thinking. How can this be one of the games that saved the season when the rest of the month was a wash? Yes the Carolina Hurricanes went 2-5-0 for the rest of the month. Yes they never really recovered until late December and 2019. But for that one night, the team learned something critical about themselves: They have no quit in them.

This is the same thing that will give this team a much needed push against their opponents in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.They also learned that their newly minted Captain was a man that will lead by example on the ice and in the locker room. This will not be the last time Williams saves a game from defeat and the team goes on to win it in the extra frame.