Di Giuseppe scores in OT, Hurricanes top Bruins

BOSTON -- Phillip Di Giuseppe scored on a rebound 1:30 into overtime, and Cam Ward made 30 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Thursday.
With Boston attempting to make a line change, Jeff Skinner jumped off the Hurricanes bench and went into the Bruins zone on a breakaway. Goalie Tuukka Rask made the save, but Di Giuseppe gathered the rebound, spun and put the puck past Rask's blocker and under Boston center Patrice Bergeron.
It was Di Giuseppe's fifth goal of the season and first in 15 games.

"I saw [Skinner] going down on a little breakaway there and just in case he missed I was going to clean up the garbage," Di Giuseppe said. "So, I got lucky. It came right to me, and I took a whack at it."

The Hurricanes (31-26-11) are 5-0-1 in their past six games. They are four points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings rallied to defeat the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
Elias Lindholm and Nathan Gerbe scored for Carolina, which started a five-game road trip. Rookie defenseman Noah Hanifin, making his professional debut in Boston after growing up in Norwood, Mass., and playing for Boston College, assisted on Di Giuseppe's game-winning goal.
"It was my first game here in the NHL and just to be able to get out there and get a win in front of all my family and friends, it was definitely a really cool experience," Hanifin said.
Loui Eriksson and David Pastrnak scored for the Bruins, and Rask made 25 saves.

Boston (38-23-8) is in first place in the Atlantic Division with 84 points, one more than the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have played two fewer games. The Bruins are 4-0-2 in their past six games and were coming off back-to-back overtime wins on the road against the Florida Panthers and Lightning.
"I really think our guys really struggled tonight with their skating game, and sometimes those are the effects of coming off a back-to-back, and you don't have the legs that you'd want," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "And we needed maybe to be a little bit smarter because of that. When you don't have your legs going, you've got to at least make some smart decisions there, and it probably wasn't as sharp as we could have been."
The Hurricanes opened the scoring in the first period with Bergeron in the penalty box for high sticking. Lindholm's wrist shot from the right faceoff dot trickled between Rask's right arm and torso at 5:06.
It was Lindholm's ninth goal but first in 16 games.

Carolina did not have another shot on goal for 12:56; in that time, Boston had eight shots but failed to score.
The Bruins outshot the Hurricanes 8-5 in the first period, with all of Carolina's shots coming during two power plays.
Eriksson made the Hurricanes pay for a penalty with a power-play goal at 5:13 of the second period. Torey Krug skated end to end and dished off to Bergeron at the blue line. Bergeron made a cross-ice pass to Eriksson for a one-timer that hit Ward's stick and went in to tie it 1-1.
Bergeron has five goals and three assists during a six-game point streak.

The Hurricanes' first two 5-on-5 shots led to a 2-1 lead. After Boston's Ryan Spooner missed the net with a backhand shot on a breakaway, Carolina was sent on a 2-on-1 by a long pass from Riley Nash. Chris Terry kept the puck and tested Rask with a backhand shot, and Gerbe put the rebound into the top of the net at 8:34 of the second.
"There was a stretch there where we weren't heavy enough on the forecheck or strong enough in the zone or on the puck," Carolina coach Bill Peters said. "Once we got a little more committed by a group of 12 forwards, then the tide turned a little bit, especially in the third period."
The Hurricanes outshot the Bruins 10-8 in the third period, but Boston tied it 2-2 when Pastrnak beat Ward at 5:54 on a 2-on-1 after a long indirect pass from the defensive zone by David Krejci.
The Bruins will host the New York Islanders on Saturday, when the Hurricanes visit the Buffalo Sabres.