Are the Hurricanes off the schneid? Breaking down the Canes’ overtime win over the Flames
No one likes overtime quite like Sebastian Aho, it seems.
Or Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. He likes overtimes, too.
Aho tied an NHL record Sunday with his fifth overtime winner of the season for the Canes, blasting a shot past goalie Dustin Wolf of the Calgary Flames for a 2-1 victory at the Lenovo Center.
In a game disjointed by penalties and a lot of missed opportunities, Aho ended it with 1:44 left in overtime. Taking a pass from defenseman Jaccob Slavin, he unloaded a shot from the right circle that beat Wolf high to the blocker side for the 14th OT winner of his career.
The day before, in a tight loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Aho failed to score on a late breakaway that could have forced overtime. He did not miss Sunday, slamming his stick into the glass — once, twice — after the goal in celebration.
“I kind of got a step on my guy and got a pretty good spot to shoot,” Aho said.
The overtime was needed after the Canes failed to score with four minutes of power-play time late in regulation. Forward Jordan Martinook was bloodied by a high stick, resulting in Andrei Svechnikov dropping the gloves to throw some heavy punches in his defense, but the Canes could not break a 1-1 tie and were 0-6 on the power play in the game.
“You’d like to see us put the game away earlier with all those opportunities,” Aho said. “But that’s how things go. And it doesn’t really matter at this time of year how we win.”
That Aho decided it did not surprise Brind’Amour. With his fifth OT winner, Aho took the franchise record for a season ahead of Martin Necas. It also was the center’s seventh game-winner of the season for the Canes (35-22-4).
Brind’Amour noted that three-on-three overtimes present a lot of open ice. Aho, like Necas, thrives on that.
“There’s a lot of room out there and then he can be creative,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s competitive as heck, and I think those combinations suit him.”
The Hurricanes improved to 5-2 this season in overtime.
Brind’Amour said the NHL going to the three-on-three overtime is the “best thing the league has done.”
“It’s super exciting,” he said. “How many games go to a shootout now? It’s strategy, it’s skill. It’s OK, you wear a team out and then you pounce.”
That’s what the Canes did. They controlled the puck in the OT, passing, skating, cycling the puck, and then Aho pounced.
The Canes took a 1-0 lead into the third period as Slavin scored off the rush with a half-minute left in the second, on a Jackson Blake pass. But the Flames tied it on Nazem Kadri’s power-play goal seven minutes into the third.
The game Sunday was a scoreless snooze for almost 40 minutes. But by late in the third, both teams had scored and the Canes’ Andrei Svechnikov had dropped the gloves and gone after Joel Hanley for a heavyweight tilt packed with big punches.
The Flames (28-23-9), shut out in their last two games, managed just one shot in the opening period as Canes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov mostly watched. But Calgary had more jump in the second and Kochetkov had some tough saves to make.
The Flames’ Joel Farabee had a breakaway and Kochetkov made the stop. Later, Morgan Frost shook free on a breakaway and Kochetkov went with the poke check to deny Frost.
“Second period, I have hard job,” Kochetkov said. “It’s just my job. I try to save every time.”
With the Eastern Conference tightening up, the Canes went into Sunday’s game just six points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, who held the second wild-card playoff spot. After the 3-1 loss to the Oilers, and facing a road game against the Wings, the Canes could be starting to feel the squeeze but pulled out a win Sunday.
“Obviously that was a test of patience,” Aho said. “There was so much going on. Penalties both ways. Five on five it was almost impossible to find rhythm. Obviously a lot of minutes on the (penalty) kill.
“Yeah, a weird game.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM.
