In Calgary, the dreaded two-goal lead was a hazard for the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
Sebastian Aho and Calvin de Haan scored to stake the Canes to the 2-0 lead in the first period.
“We’ve got a lot of games left,” Aho said. “We have to focus on the next one and try to win that game. That’s all we’re going to focus on.”
The hockey gods must have a thing this season for that lead.
“It was a great start,” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “We were sticking to our game, and then they got a big power-play goal. Our penalty kill is solid and it gives us momentum, and so that kind of killed our momentum. Still had a pretty good first period, but then obviously that second period we were just grinding in our end the whole time.”
The Flames rallied back with two goals in regulation, and the winner from Tyler Toffoli with 30 seconds left in the extra session for a 3-2 win.
Rasmus Andersson set up the winner for Toffoli.
“‘Ras’ did a really good job taking it wide and using his speed, and I was just trying to find a little space, and he made a great play right in the middle,” Toffoli said.
Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves in the Calgary win.
“It was big,” Markstrom said. “You don’t want to lose two in a row and turn into a .500 team. You’ve got to keep winning hockey games, and it’s a big win for us today.”
Nazem Kadri and Brett Ritchie rallied the Flames back to tie the game, 2-2, in the middle frame.
“The penalty killers were unbelievable,” Markstrom said. “For everyone that was out there, I don’t know how many different pairings on forward and [defensemen] that was out there for that four-minute kill. That was huge for us and after that, we grabbed the momentum.”
Antti Raanta made 29 saves in the Canes loss.
“Third period we came back, did well … got a goal that got taken back off the board, which [was the] right call,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “[Markstrom] made a great save on another one. We all had our hands in the air thinking it went in. It wasn’t our best, but I thought we worked really hard.”
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