In Raleigh, the visiting Nashville Predators trailed the Hurricanes 5-3 in the second period before scoring three straight goals, including the game-winner in extra time from Filip Forsberg for a 6-5 win on Friday night.
Tyson Barrie trimmed the deficit for the Preds to 5-4 midway through the middle frame.
Jeremy Lauzon forced the extra session when he tied the game, 5-5, at 10:57 of the third .
Forsberg scored with 35 seconds gone in extra time.
“It was a good middle-lane drive by (Roman) Josi to create that space [so] I could cut,” Forsberg said. “After that, I just tried to shoot as hard as I could.”
Nashville improved to 17-13-0) off their third straight win.
“I liked our overall game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought [in] stretches of the game we looked really good, and in stretches we sat back a little. But give [Carolina] credit. They’re such a well-coached team and well-oiled machine. They get going and they push you back.”
Kevin Lankinen made 25 saves in the win.
Nashville had taken a 1-0 lead in the game on a strike by Juuso Parssinen at 5:20 of the opening stanza.
Stefan Noesen replied with a tying goal at at 10:23 of the first off a power play marker.
“We had the lead pretty much the entire [game] after the first goal,” Noesen said. “We have to learn to play with the lead. We’re at Game 30 now and we’ve still got a lot of hockey left, so you just build off of it.”
Carolina kept up the pressure and took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Tony DeAngelo at 12:13.
Nashville stayed close all night, and Roman Josi tied it up, 2-2, at 3:47 of the middle frame.
“Even in the second when they got two quick ones, I thought we were pushing,” Josi said, “I feel like normally when us two play, it’s a little more of a tight game, but it’s kind of fun once in a while to win a game like that.”
Caroline tried to distance itself from the Predators with a pair of goals, 19 seconds apart for a 4-2 lead.
“A lot of nights, a lot of teams go away,” Brunette said. “We didn’t. I just like the resiliency of the whole group. It felt like we pushed back. As a coach, you really appreciate that and you’re proud of your group.
Jalen Chatfield scored at 4:50 of the second for a 3-2 lead, and Sebastian Aho’ pushed the lad to 4-2 at 5:09.
Carolina dropped to 16-12-2.
“We didn’t have any jump,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You could tell. We were late on everything. I give the guys credit for trying. We were a little off, I think, a little fatigued. You could tell by all the rush opportunities we were giving up. That never happens.”
Nashville got back within one at 4-3 with a power play strike by Ryan O’Reilly at 9:26 of the second.
“I thought we played well in the third,” Forsberg said. “Obviously we forced the [tying goal]. It was a back-and-forth game. It was probably a lot of fun to watch. Maybe the coaches didn’t love it as much, but it was a great effort for us coming back from two.”
Carolina responded quickly with Martin Necas pushed the lead back to two, 5-3, at 9:51.
Antti Raanta made 25 saves.
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