Aho lifts Hurricanes past Panthers in OT

Sebastian Aho scored at 1:46 of overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Saturday.

After Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek made a breakaway save on Jonathan Huberdeau, Nino Niederreiter skated in on a 2-on-1 and sent a backhand pass through the crease to Aho, who redirected it in.
"Sweaty, sweaty shift there," Aho said. "I saw Niederreiter] open and just started skating as fast as I can. Went backdoor, easy tap-in."
***[WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Panthers highlights]*
Brock McGinn, Greg McKegg and Brett Pesce scored, and Mrazek made 31 saves for the Hurricanes (36-23-6), who have won five in a row and eight of their past nine (8-1-0). Carolina leads the Pittsburgh Penguins by one point for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Sam Montembeault made 22 saves in his NHL debut for the Panthers (28-25-11), who trail the Montreal Canadiens by 10 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Henrik Borgstrom had two goals and an assist, Mark Pysyk had a goal and an assist, and Jamie McGinn and
Dryden Hunt
each had two assists.
Brock McGinn gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead when he stripped the puck from Keith Yandle and scored short side at 1:26 of the first period.

McKegg scored 39 seconds later to make it 2-0 on a one-timer in the slot after taking Lucas Wallmark's pass from behind the net.
"I think Montembeault] was nervous at the beginning," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "I don't think we really helped him too much. They had some jump on us in the first five minutes. He looked good after that."
Borgstrom cut it to 2-1 at 5:01 with a wrist shot from the left circle that went under the crossbar, and Pysyk tied it 2-2 on a shot that redirected in off the stick of Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook at 11:50.
Borgstrom gave Florida a 3-2 lead at 5:32 of the third period, taking a backhand pass from
[Jamie McGinn
from the end boards and scoring on a one-timer at the left hash marks.

"That was a great play," Borgstrom said. "He did all the job on the forecheck and got the puck for me in front of the net."
Pesce tied it 3-3 at 8:19 after gloving down a loose puck in the slot and scoring on a backhand.
Mrazek kept the game tied in overtime when he made a diving poke check to stop Mike Matheson, who was alone in the slot.
"[Matheson] didn't look at me, he was looking at the puck," Mrazek said. "I just tried to get out and poke check it and give us a chance to go the other way."
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said, "I haven't seen that kind of save in a long time. That's old school. It was great anticipation for him. Can't say enough about him."

They said it

"That was a tough one. We didn't get to anything we wanted to do. I don't know what it says (about the team). We got down, found a way to chip one in to tie it up. Then in overtime, it looked like we didn't know what we were doing. Petr [Mrazek] was really phenomenal. That's the difference." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"I was really nervous at the beginning of the game. I didn't have the start I wanted with those two quick goals. After that, there was nothing I could do with it, so I took a big breath. It went a lot better after that. Next time I'll know what to expect. It's a learning experience for me. I'm just happy it happened this year." -- Panthers goalie Sam Montembeault

Need to know

Aho has six points (three goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … Carolina is 9-1-1 in its past 11 road games. … Florida's Aleksander Barkov went 14-for-15 on face-offs. … Borgstrom's three-point night was his first multipoint game in the NHL. … Troy Brouwer was the only Florida skater without a shot on goal.

What's next

Panthers:Host the Ottawa Senators on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:At the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, NESN, FS-CR, NHL.TV)