They Said It: Brind’Amour, Niederreiter, Aho on overtime win over Vegas

Things didn’t go exactly according to plan Tuesday night for the Carolina Hurricanes, who let a 2-0 and 3-1 lead slip away, but all is well that ends well.

The Canes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in overtime, thanks to a game-winning goal from Sebastian Aho, his second of the night. Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck also scored for the Canes, who got a great performance in net from Frederik Andersen as well.

Following the win, head coach Rod Brind’Amour, Niederreiter and Aho spoke with members of the media via Zoom.

Here is what they had to say:

Rod Brind’Amour

On how he feels after that win: I feel great. It was a good game. We had a little lull there, but I thought it was a great game. Entertaining. Good finish, obviously. Two points.

On the season Niederreiter is having and on his depth scoring: You need it, obviously. Everyone always talks about it, getting contributions from everybody. If we want to go where we want to go, we’re going to have to have it. We’re going to need everyone scoring at times. He’s been good this year. He’s been steady. That’s real important.

On the Jordan Staal, Niederreiter, Jesper Fast line: They were good. [Staal] was a big factor on that goal. Really it’s tough to find anyone that wasn’t good. We played really solid. The first period was great. We came out and did everything we needed to. Should have been probably ahead, couple of weird bounces there. We got ahead. Obviously they got a couple late ones, but I liked how we got right back on it in overtime. It was certainly an exciting overtime.

On Andersen’s performance: Both goalies played well. Their goalie kept them in it, I thought, early. Freddie at the end there, third period especially, made some big saves. Overtime made a couple there. When we had our chance go that way. That’s what overtime does for you. It goes back and forth there. We know he has to be one of our best players if we’re going to be successful, and he has been all year.

On Svechnikov’s big night: He’s been great. I didn’t get him out there that much through two periods, and it was just weird how that was working out. I was like ‘I’ve got to get him out there more. Obviously in overtime I kept asking him if he was alright, and he kept giving me the nod. You could tell he was definitely playing well.

Nino Niederreiter

On playing with Staal and Fast and on Staal’s contributions: He’s been in the league for so many years. He knows he’s just got to stay with it and the bounces will come. He’s just a force. Even if he’s not getting on the scoresheet, he does so many little things right. That’s what makes him a great leader. Whenever we have a chance to play together, we know exactly what we have to do to be successful. We trust in one another that we’re doing our jobs. I think that’s very key for us.

On Andersen’s performance: Freddie has been important for us all season long. There’s a reason why he’s an All-Star goalie. Every single night he keeps us in the game. But at the end of the day, we can’t just always rely on him. We’ve just got to make sure we put him in a position to be successful all the time.

Sebastian Aho

On getting the win in overtime: A win is a win. We’ll take those two points for sure. That’s a quality team out there against us. Obviously you don’t want to lose a two-goal lead in the third, but it really didn’t change the way we played. We just got right back at it, and obviously it’s a good win in OT.

On his game-winning goal: Great read by [Andrei Svechnikov]. He won his battle there. He wanted that puck, which is the thing he does really well. He’s strong and fast. He made a nice play, great pass to me. I had to bury that one.

On Andersen’s performance: Huge. In OT and the whole night and whole year, he’s been great for us. He just keeps us in the game every night. That’s pretty much all you can ask from the goalie.