Massive comeback steals point for Canes, who fall in OT in Winnipeg

After 50 minutes of hockey Monday night in Winnipeg, the Canes looked dead in the water.

Carolina trailed the Jets 3-0 in Canada Centre in what had been an overwhelmingly lackluster effort for the visitors, as the Jets controlled the game against a Canes team that looked like it would never score a goal again.

But then Rod Brind’Amour pulled Pyotr Kochetkov with five minutes left in the game, and all hell broke loose. Jaccob Slavin pulled one back for the Canes almost immediately. A minute and 40 seconds later, with the net empty again, Andrei Svechnikov tipped one in to make it 3-2. Then with just 38 seconds left in the game — and the net empty once again — Martin Necas rifled one in to earn the Canes a point and force overtime.

And in the extra period of hockey, Josh Morissey got out on the break and scored his second goal of the game to give the Jets the win. All four of the goals from Winnipeg in the game — two from Morissey, one from Pierre-Luc Dubois and one from Michael Eyssimont — were scored on the rush.

In net, Kochetkov stopped 19 of 23 shots faced, while David Rittich made 26 saves on 29 shots faced on the other end of the ice.

The opening of the game was a slow one, as neither team seemed too interested in doing much of anything. Sebastian Aho buried a great shorthanded chance into Rittich’s gut and had another breakout chance sail over the bar, but not much else was happening for either side.

Winnipeg did break the stalemate late in the opening period, as Dubois got in behind the Canes after an offensive-zone turnover from Carolina and fired low on Kochetkov to beat him one-on-one and give the home team a lead heading into the first intermission.

In a similar fashion to their first goal, the Jets made it 2-0 near the midway point of the second period. Andrei Svechnikov, for the second time, was involved in the offensive-zone turnover, and David Gustafsson got out on a break. Kochetkov denied Gustafsson’s initial attempt, but Eyssimont was there for the follow to double the lead.

The rest of the period went by without the Canes cutting into the lead, as Carolina did successfully kill off a 5-on-3 but couldn’t do anything in the way of finding a goal itself.

Rod Brind’Amour shuffled up the lines heading into the third period, but it certainly didn’t help. Winnipeg made it 3-0 early on yet another rush goal, as Morrissey buried one past Kochetkov.

With five minutes left in the game Kochetkov headed to the bench, and just a few seconds later Slavin blasted home his first goal of the season with the help of a nice screen from Seth Jarvis.

Shortly after that, Brent Burns launched a shot towards net and Svechnikov got his stick to it, again with Jarvis in the mix, to cut the lead to 3-2.

After returning to 5-on-5 play for a brief period, Kochetkov headed to the bench again and this time it was Necas, whose shot from the top went through some screens and past Rittich to tie the game and force overtime.

The Canes played some of their worst hockey of the year for 55 minutes Monday night, but a five-minute stretch as any earned Carolina a point to close out the road trip. The Canes will be back in action Wednesday night at home against the Coyotes.