Hanifin's late OT goal gives Hurricanes victory
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Noah Hanifin scored with two seconds left in overtime and Cam Ward stopped 37 shots to move within one victory of 300 for his career as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Saturday night.
Carolina (11-9-5), which was 1-3-1 in its last five games, had the majority of the good chances in the extra period before Hanifin, a defenseman, scored his fifth of the season.
Jeff Skinner's team-leading 10th goal of the season midway through the third period gave Carolina a 2-1 lead and snapped Skinner's eight-game streak without a goal after he registered nine over a 15-game span.
Aleksander Barkov scored his ninth of the season with 1:56 left, seconds after the Panthers had pulled goalie James Reimer for an extra attacker.
Florida (10-13-3) had some recent success on the road, beating New Jersey and the New York Rangers in a two-day span, but has scored only three goals in its last two losses.
Ward, the 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, needs one victory to become the 32nd goalie in NHL history to record 300. All of Ward's victories have come as a member of the Hurricanes.
Florida managed only four first-period shots, spending much of the period trying to kill off three penalties. Carolina managed to break through on its third man-advantage opportunity with six minutes left in the period when Elias Lindholm tipped in a shot from Sebastian Aho that found its way under the arm of Reimer, who stopped 38 shots in regulation.
Aho's assist snapped a four-game pointless streak after he had posted 10 points over a five-game stretch.
Florida rebounded with a strong second period, registering 20 shots on goal, but the Panthers still couldn't solve Ward until early in the third when Nick Bjugstad scored his sixth of the season from in close with 15:08 left to tie the score 1-1.
NOTES: Florida D Keith Yandle played in his 660th consecutive game. ... Carolina improved to 33-10-4 at home against Florida since the 1999-2000 season. ... The Hurricanes will embark on a season-long six-game road trip, starting with Vancouver on Tuesday night. ... Florida failed to score in the first period and its 17 goals in the opening period are tied for third-worst in the NHL. ... Carolina came into the game as the only NHL team with no fighting majors, but had two in the first two periods Saturday with LW Brock McGinn and D Noah Hanifin dropping the gloves. The fights mark a franchise record for the longest the team had gone into a season without a fighting penalty (2015-16, 20th game).