Hurricanes rally late for OT victory against Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. --Martin Necas scored at 1:59 of overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied for a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Monday.

Necas, who also had two assists, won it for the Hurricanes when he one-timed a pass from Sebastian Aho near the right goal post.
"It feels good; you just end the game," Necas said. "It's a good feeling, especially for me, I really like 3-on-3 (in overtime); there's a lot of space. You can make some skilled plays."
Vincent Trocheck tied the game with 1:33 left in the third period, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 44 saves for the Hurricanes (14-6-1), who swept the two-game set. Carolina won 4-3 in the shootout here Saturday when Necas scored the game-winner in the fifth round.
"It's always good to win no matter how you do it," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Obviously that's not how you would draw it up. The third period was a little shaky for us. We were on our heels.
"But I love how our guys are digging in. They seem to never quit. It looked like that was going to go the other way tonight, and we bounce back. It's two points, and we'll take them."
Frank Vatrano scored for a third straight game, and Eetu Luostarinen also scored for the Panthers (13-4-4), who have lost consecutive games for the first time this season. Chris Driedger made 28 saves.
"It looked like we were in a pretty good spot to win the game, but I like the way we're competing," Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. "There were a lot of positives coming out of the game even though we were trailing."
Trocheck tied it 2-2 with Nedeljkovic off for an extra attacker. It was Trocheck's third goal in three games this season against the Panthers, who traded him to the Hurricanes on Feb. 24, 2020, for four players, including Luostarinen.
Trocheck leads Carolina with 11 goals.
"He's done it for us all year," Brind'Amour said. "He's logging a lot of minutes, plays every situation now. It was a huge acquisition at the time; I think we talked about it, getting a player like that. You're seeing that now. His play this year has been great."

Luostarinen scored on a rebound on Florida's 18th consecutive shot of the third period for a 2-1 lead at 16:51.
The Panthers outshot the Hurricanes 23-9 in the third.
"[Nedeljkovic] deserved that win so bad," Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce said. "Honestly, we weren't our best, including myself. We had a lot of breakdowns and he was there to clean it all up and to get that win for him is huge. It was huge and it's definitely good for his confidence."
Pesce gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 13:35 of the first period on the power play with a one-timer from the left face-off circle.
Vatrano tied it 1-1 when he scored on a rebound at 4:40 of the third. Each goal during Vatrano's streak has been scored in the third period.
"The last few games we've been playing really well in the third period," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. "Obviously when you're not getting the lead in the first or second period, that's why you have to come back strong in the third and try to score goals.
"It never feels good to lose those [late leads] and go into overtime, but it happens and we just have to learn from it and move forward. It was a huge point for us again."
Barkov played his 500th NHL game and had an assist on Vatrano's goal.

"That's a huge accomplishment for myself, obviously," Barkov said. "Even one game in this league is a dream and every game for me is living the dream."
NOTES: It was the fifth consecutive game the Panthers allowed the first goal. They have not scored in the first or second period in their past four games (1-1-2). … Florida forward Noel Acciari had one shot on goal and six hits in 11:28 after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. … The 46 shots on goal are the most the Hurricanes have allowed this season; they gave up 40 in a 7-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 15.