In Sunrise, the Florida Panthers just did not have enough to make that one last push on Monday night.
Instead, the Carolina Hurricanes got an over time goal from Martin Necas to down the Panthers, 3-2.
“It feels good; you just end the game,” Necas said. “It’s a good feeling, especially for me, I really like 3-on-3 [in overtime]; there’s a lot of space. You can make some skilled plays.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 44 saves to get the win.
“It’s always good to win no matter how you do it,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Obviously that’s not how you would draw it up. The third period was a little shaky for us. We were on our heels.
“But I love how our guys are digging in. They seem to never quit. It looked like that was going to go the other way tonight and we bounce back. It’s two points and we’ll take them.”
Brett Pesce scored just past the midway point in the the first period
The Panthers replied to that first goal with strikes from Frank Vatrano and Eeta Luostarinen for a 2-1 lead..
“It looked like we were in a pretty good spot to win the game, but I like the way we’re competing,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said. “There were a lot of positives coming out of the game even though we were trailing.”
The Canes’ Vincent Trocheck forced the extra session when he tied the game at 2-2 with 97 seconds left in the third period.
“He’s done it for us all year,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s logging a lot of minutes, plays every situation now. It was a huge acquisition at the time; I think we talked about it, getting a player like that. You’re seeing that now. His play this year has been great.”
Necas had three points on the night.
“[Nedeljkovic] deserved that win so bad,” Carolina’s Brett Pesce said. “Honestly, we weren’t our best, including myself. We had a lot of breakdowns and he was there to clean it all up and to get that win for him is huge. It was huge and it’s definitely good for his confidence.”
Chris Driedger made 24 saves in the loss.
“The last few games we’ve been playing really well in the third period,” Florida’s Aleksander Barkov said. “Obviously when you’re not getting the lead in the first or second period, that’s why you have to come back strong in the third and try to score goals.
“It never feels good to lose those [late leads] and go into overtime, but it happens and we just have to learn from it and move forward. It was a huge point for us again.”
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