Wild 3, Hurricanes 2 - OT

The Carolina Hurricanes came out on fire in the first period and took a 2-0 lead before the 10 minute mark, but the Minnesota Wild came back to tie the contest before eventually winning, 3-2 in overtime in front of 9,511 at the PNC Arena on Thursday night.

Justin Faulk scored his sixth goal of the season, all powerplay tallies, to get things started off at 4:26 into the game.  Victor Rask won the faceoff, Eric Staal got the puck to Faulk, and the NHL's leading powerplay goal-scorer did the rest with a wicked snap shot from deep.

The Canes kept almost constant pressure on in the Minnesota zone and dominated the stat sheet in the first period.

They made it 2-0 when Andrej Nestrasil put in a loose puck when Jay McClement created traffic in front of Wild goalie, Devan Dubnyk.  The goal was originally waved off because of goalie interference, but coach Bill Peters used his coach's challenge on the play and the original call was reversed.

That was Peters' first win using the challenge, (1-3).

The Wild only put five shots on the Carolina goal in the period but Jason Zucker was able to beat Cam Ward with shot number five when he skated in at an angle, to make it 2-1, before the end of the first.

The second period was all Minnesota and coach Peters was not happy with it.  He called out some players in the post game, saying they should look in the mirror and some guys did not play a full 60 minutes.  He was happy with the fourth line of Nestrasil, McClement, and Nordstrom.  "They played a great game", he said.

He did not mention his other lines.

After outshooting the opposition 19-5 in the opening stanza, the Canes only mustered three shots on goal in the second.  The Wild tied the score when Thomas Vanek wristed in a pretty shot, midway through the period.

The home team came on stronger in the third, but they were not able to beat Dubnyk.

After the scoreless third the game went into overtime, a period that has been good to Carolina so far this season.  Jeff Skinner started things off by drawing a penalty, but the Wild killed off the 4-on-3 advantage.  After killing off the penalty, they once again created havoc in front of Ward and Zucker knocked in the game-winner.

That was the first overtime loss for the Canes who are now 1-3 in the extra period.

The Wild did a good job of bumping and encroaching the Carolina goalie when they really needed a score and the Canes had no answer.

Next up will be a game against the Flyers on Saturday night.

Game Notes:

• The Canes outshot the Wild 39-21 and were led by Jeff Skinner with seven.  Skinner had a couple of grade A chances but just missed on them. 
  
• The Canes were outhit 25-11 but it was the traffic in front of and on top of Ward that was key. 
  
• Ron Hainsey had 26:09 of ice time.  Faulk was right behind with 25:54.