Maple Leafs defeat Hurricanes in overtime

RALEIGH, N.C. --Morgan Rielly scored at 2:13 of overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Saturday.
Rielly skated behind the net and worked up the boards before cutting to the slot to beat Cam Ward with a low shot for his fourth goal of the season.

"In this overtime, you want to hold onto the puck] as long as you can," Rielly said. "You don't want to turn it over if you don't have to. It's just a matter of holding onto it, try to find a teammate or a lane to shoot it. I got lucky and it just happened to go in."
**WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Hurricanes highlights**
Frederik Andersen made 36 saves for the Maple Leafs (31-22-14), who have won three in a row. Toronto moved one point ahead of the New York Islanders for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
The Hurricanes (27-27-11) are 3-7-4 in their past 14 games.
"We've got to find a way to finish some plays," Carolina coach Bill Peters said. "I thought there were a lot of positives to our team game. Just a little more finish around the net is what we're needing and lacking right now."
Victor Rask's 15th goal of the season gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 8:59 of the first period. He carried the puck to the bottom of the right faceoff circle and scored on a short-side wrist shot past Andersen.
Mitchell Marner tied the game 1-1 at 9:52 after a strong cycling play. James Van Reimsdyk and Tyler Bozak worked the puck in the corner before Bozak fed Marner for a shot that fooled Ward.
"We were moving it around pretty good," Van Riemsdyk said. "When we're skating and moving around like that, it makes it tough for the other team."

Carolina scored 45 seconds into the second period to take a 2-1 lead on Teuvo Teravainen's 13th goal of the season. With the Hurricanes on the power play, Teravainen took a pass from Jordan Staal and sent a long shot through traffic that deflected off Rielly's stick.
"I was going for Staal's stick and [the puck] hit mine," Rielly said. "I went over to [Andersen] and said sorry."
Van Reimsdyk made it 2-2 at 7:37 when he took a touch pass from Marner and scored on a wrist shot over the blocker of Ward, who was screened by Klas Dahlbeck.
"It's a fun time to play and it gets more and more fun the more you win," Andersen said. "We just have to go out and enjoy it and play the right way."

Goal of the game

Rielly's game-winner was a great individual effort. After skating halfway up the boards he stopped and changed direction on Rask, who had trailed him the entire way. Rielly then cut to his left and found a shooting lane in the slot.

Save of the game

With the game tied 2-2 at 5:10 of the third period, Andersen reacted quickly to Elias Lindholm's redirect of a Jaccob Slavin shot.

Highlight of the game

Marner scored less than a minute after Carolina opened the scoring, one-timing a pass from Bozak from the right corner.

Unsung performance of the game

Toronto blocked 18 shots, six by Roman Polak, who also had two hits in 22:59.

They said it

"For this past month or two he's been our best player. He's really risen to the challenge. The more games we play the more important they get, and he seems to get better and better. He's a huge part of this team. We're very happy for him that he's playing well and keeping us in it."-- Morgan Rielly on goaltender Frederik Andersen
"I was on [the ice] kind of long, but I felt good. [Rielly] just shook me off a little bit and he scored, so it's my bad."-- Victor Rask, who was checking Rielly on the game-winning goal

Need to know

Hurricanes forward Valentin Zykov, who scored in his NHL debut against the New York Rangers on Thursday, sustained an upper-body injury on a check from Polak on his first shift of the game. … Andersen improved to 3-1-0 against Carolina, which selected him in the seventh round (No. 187) in the 2010 NHL Draft. ... Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews had six takeaways. ... Slavin played a season-high 29:47. ... Hurricanes defenseman Noah Hanifin had 11 shot attempts.

What's next

Maple Leafs:At the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, TSN4, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:At the New York Islanders on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)