Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways From OT Win Against the Buffalo Sabres

The Carolina Hurricanes traveled to Buffalo last night, and walked away with two points in the standings. Last night, the Canes increased Buffalo’s losing streak to five, and their own winning streak to two.

The Carolina Hurricanes triumphed over the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 in overtime, in a game that should never have gone to overtime in the first place. This game was a high-scoring affair that saw the Sabres keeping pace with the Canes, both physically and on the scoreboard.

The Sabres went up 1-0 early, as former Carolina Hurricane Jeff Skinner scored the opening goal (his first goal in five games) of the game in the 1st period. The Canes responded in turn, as Jordan Staal scored his 100th goal as a Carolina Hurricane to knot the score at 1 apiece.

Shortly after, in the waning minutes of the 1st period, Sebastian Aho scored a powerplay goal, assisted by Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov, to pull the Carolina Hurricanes ahead, 2-1 to finish out the 1st period.

Less than 50 seconds into the 2nd period, Teravainen would deflect a beautiful no-look pass by Svechnikov past Buffalo goaltender Carter Hutton. The goal initially looked to be credited to Aho, but after review, the puck last touched Teravainen’s stick, giving him his fifth goal of the year, and pulling the Canes ahead 3-1.

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The Buffalo Sabres seemed to struggle for the remainder of the period, until Curtis Lazar scored his first goal of the season on a breakaway; Lazar blocked a shot from Haydn Fleury, then skated alone into the zone to snap a shot past Carolina Hurricanes’ netminder Petr Mrazek to bring the score to 3-2 to finish out the 2nd period.

Lazar’s goal seemed to wake the Buffalo Sabres up, as they continued to pour on the offensive pressure in the 3rd period. Close to the midway point of the 3rd, Henri Jokiharju manages to find the loose puck after a scrum in front of Mrazek, and deftly rockets it past Mrazek to tie the game at 3 per side.

Later on in the 3rd, the Carolina Hurricanes were awarded a powerplay after Joel Edmundson was clipped by a high-stick from Sam Reinhart. Andrei Svechnikov would convert on the powerplay, scoring his eighth goal of the season with less than 4 minutes to play to bring the Canes ahead, yet again, 4-3.

Not to be outdone, the Buffalo Sabres managed to tie the game up yet again, after Carter Hutton was pulled; Johan Larsson tips a shot from Jeff Skinner to tie the game up with about 40 seconds left in the game to tie it up, and force the game to overtime.

The overtime period was an eventful one, especially for the Carolina Hurricanes; rookie phenom Martin Necas absolutely blew by the Buffalo Sabres’ defense in an attempt to drive the net. Necas waits with the puck, and instead of shooting, passes it right to Dougie Hamilton, who blasts it by Carter Hutton to win the game. This goal was Dougie’s ninth of the season; this puts him squarely tied for 1st in goals by a defenseman this season.

The Carolina Hurricanes have now won 10 straight against the Buffalo Sabres, and the Canes have moved up in the standings to 10th. If the Canes can managed to string together a few wins, we’ll be back in the Top 5 in no time.

Question for CC Readers: What was your favorite moment from last night’s game?