Lee Stempniak and Sebastian Aho scored on Carolina's first two attempts, and Ward stopped Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at PNC Arena on Saturday. The win came one night after a 4-3 loss in which he was beaten by Washington Capitals forwards T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov in the tiebreaker. Ward had a laugh at his own expense after the win against Buffalo.
WATCH: All Sabres vs. Hurricanes highlights
"To come up with a shootout win, those are pretty rare with me, so those certainly feel good," said Ward, who is 17-39 in the tiebreaker. "There's only one way to get over what happens. Today I felt a lot more relaxed and calm than I did last night."
Ward made 23 saves for the Hurricanes (13-11-7), who are 8-0-1 in their past nine home games. Anders Nilsson made 21 saves for the Sabres (12-11-7).
Buffalo made a late push in the third period and tied the game 1-1 with 2:37 remaining when Evander Kane redirected Jake McCabe's shot from the point just inside the right post. Marcus Foligno was credited with the second assist.
Joakim Nordstrom gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 14:04 of the first period. He jumped on a loose puck after a possession battle between Carolina's Jay McClement and Buffalo's Zach Bogosian and shot it past Nilsson from close range. Brett Pesce earned the second assist with an aerial pass out of the defensive zone.
"That one was over the head of both guys, and they're both skating back to a bouncing puck," Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. "You take a whack and try to get it out of there. We missed it on the first try, unfortunately, and the clearing attempt gets whacked onto an open guy's stick."
The game was tight-checking through two periods, with little room for either team to create offense in the neutral zone. Carolina held a 13-12 advantage in shots.
"It was pretty sloppy, especially on the breakouts for both teams," Kane said. "It was a neutral-zone battle through the course of the game, which can be frustrating at times. That's the way the game is being played."
Each team had good looks at the net in overtime. Jack Eichel fed Kane at the left post for a likely tap-in, but the puck eluded Kane's stick. Nilsson came up big when he stopped Jeff Skinner's redirection of Victor Rask's shot.
It was the second game in as many nights for each team. The Hurricanes lost to the Washington Capitals 4-3 in a shootout; Buffalo defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 in overtime.
