In Sunrise, the Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho struck for the game-winner at 1:46 of extra time for 403 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.
Just ahead of the winner, Petr Mrazek saved the game for the Canes with a brilliant save on a breakaway.
Petr Mrazek made big save ahead of OT game-winner – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Sweaty, sweaty shift there,” Aho said. “I saw [Niederreiter] open and just started skating as fast as I can. Went backdoor, easy tap-in.”
Mrazek made 31 saves to get the win as the Canes improved to 36-23-6 and sit in third place in the Metro Division, a point ahead of the first wild card spot.
Henrik Borgstrom struck twice for the Panthers and Mark Pysyk added a single marker in the loss.
Brock McGinn, Greg McKegg and Brett Pesce scored for Carolina n regulation.
“That was a tough one. We didn’t get to anything we wanted to do. I don’t know what it says (about the team),” Canes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We got down, found a way to chip one in to tie it up. Then in overtime, it looked like we didn’t know what we were doing. Petr [Mrazek] was really phenomenal. That’s the difference.”
[WATCH:Â All Hurricanes vs. Panthers highlights]
Sam Montembeault made his NHL debut for the Panthers in net and made 22 saves in the hard luck loss.
“I was really nervous at the beginning of the game,” Montembeault said. “I didn’t have the start I wanted with those two quick goals. After that, there was nothing I could do with it, so I took a big breath. It went a lot better after that. Next time I’ll know what to expect. It’s a learning experience for me. I’m just happy it happened this year.”
The Panthers dropped to 28-25-11.
“I think [Montembeault] was nervous at the beginning,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “I don’t think we really helped him too much. They had some jump on us in the first five minutes. He looked good after that.”
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