RALEIGH, N.C. — Tuomo Ruutu and
Jussi Jokinen scored in the shootout and the Carolina Hurricanes
rallied from three goals down to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 on
Thursday night.
The latest meeting of the NHL's worst
teams had a wild finish. Ian White put the Maple Leafs ahead 5-4 with
29.9 seconds remaining, but Erik Cole tapped in a rebound with 2.9
seconds left to force overtime.
After an uneventful overtime, Ruutu
and Jokinen beat Jonas Gustavsson with wrist shots and Manny Legace
stopped Phil Kessel and Lee Stempniak to preserve his first victory
with the Hurricanes.
Alexei Ponikarovsky had a goal and an
assist, and Matt Stajan, Stempniak and Mikhail Grabovski also
scored for the Maple Leafs, who led 3-0 after one period but extended
their winless streak to five.
Tim Gleason scored twice in the third
period, Matt Cullen had a goal and an assist, and he and Stephane Yelle
scored 43 seconds apart in the second to lead Carolina. Legace stopped
27 shots, and Ruutu finished with four assists for the Hurricanes in
their club-record fourth straight overtime game.
Gustavsson finished with 40 saves —
and assisted on Ponikarovsky's third-period goal — for Toronto, which
picked up points for the first time since Nov. 7, having lost four
straight in regulation since.
When these teams last met two weeks
ago, the Hurricanes were in the midst of their club-worst-tying 14-game
winless streak and lost to the Maple Leafs to claim the indignity of
being the worst team in the NHL. Since then, Carolina lost two goalies
to injury, including franchise cornerstone Cam Ward, and Legace was
brought in to stabilize things for a while.
The situation in the standings hasn't
improved much for either team: Carolina entered winless in 15 of its
last 16 and haven't won a game in regulation since Oct. 9. The Maple
Leafs came in with a lengthy slump of their own, having won only once
since their previous visit to Raleigh. The teams entered with a
combined record of 6-23-10, and each had 11 points — four behind
Anaheim.
Early on, anyway, Toronto seemed
determined to stop its slide, scoring 61 seconds in — the quickest goal
Carolina has allowed this season — on its second shot of the night,
then pushed its lead to 3-0 when Grabovski whipped in a rebound in the
final moments of the period.
Gleason, who entered with two goals
all year, and nine in his career, tied it at 4-all with 8:04 remaining
with his second goal — charging hard to the net, taking a pretty feed
from Brandon Sutter and beating Gustavsson with a wrist shot.
That came after Yelle started
Carolina's comeback with about 3 minutes left in the second by banging
in a loose puck. Moments later, Cullen beat Gustavsson with a wrist
shot to make it a game again.
Notes
Yelle's goal was his first
with Carolina. … Toronto scored first for just the third time this
season. … Carolina D Andrew Alberts rang the left post midway through
the first. … RW Patrick Dwyer was in the lineup for the Hurricanes,
who called him up from Albany earlier in the day.