Remarkable empty-net rally earns Hurricanes a point in Winnipeg

Carolina scored three goals in the final 4:48 of regulation to force overtime

Hurricanes forward Martin Necas celebrates with Jaccob Slavin and Sabastian Aho after tying the game with 39 seconds left in Carolina’s 4-3 overtime loss Monday in Winnipeg. (Fred Greenslade / The Canadian Press via AP)

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — The Hurricanes scored three goals in the final 4:48 of the third period with goalie Pyotr Kochetkov on the bench for the extra attacker, forcing overtime but losing on Josh Morrissey’s second goal of the game ar 2:10 of overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 victory Monday night.

“Up to that point, they (Carolina) got nothing,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “We’ll focus on the really good 55 minutes we played, we’ll figure out what we could’ve done better in the last couple. Give our guys credit, perseverance, you stay in the fight.”

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Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas scored for the Hurricanes, who are on a four-game point streak (1-0-3) but lost in overtime for the third straight game. Sebastian Aho added three assists.

“It’s a crazy game, No. 1. You just never know,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But I loved how, we were out of that game in the third and then they just kind of dug in and just said, ‘Let’s go.’ I give the guys credit for not giving up.”

Brind’Amour said they “had nothing to lose” in pulling Kochetkov earlier than normal.

“In this game, it didn’t matter,” he said. “We talked about it at the eight-minute timeout. I’m like, ‘Why don’t we just try something crazy because this game is kind of flat for us.’ But we decided to wait a little longer.”

Kochetkov made consecutive starts for Carolina for the first time and stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.

Necas liked their coach’s decision to go for it.

“If you look at it with five minutes left in the period and you’re losing 3-0 and you still get a point from the game, it’s pretty good for us,” Necas said. “But we could have done better.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and two assists and Michael Eyssimont had his first NHL goal for the Jets. Blake Wheeler had two assists.

“Before we hopped on to start overtime, Mikey Eyssimont and Dylan Samberg were saying, ‘Let’s go boys, let’s get this one.'” Morrissey said. “Two young guys with not that many games experience, so that kind of shows the calm on our bench.”

David Rittich made 26 saves in his fourth start for Winnipeg. He has won his last three starts.

Dubois opened the scoring with 1:26 remaining in the first after he was sprung by a long pass from Wheeler. Dubois went in alone on Kochetkov and beat him with a low shot.

Eyssimont made it 2-0 at 6:44 of the second after he capitalized on teammate David Gustafsson’s breakaway. Gustafsson’s shot bounced off Kochetkov and Eyssimont got the rebound and scored in his fourth career NHL game.

Winnipeg had a two-man advantage for 1:22 midway through the second, but Kochetkov made a quick glove save on Mark Scheifele.

The Jets looked to be heading for a shutout when Carolina pulled Kochetkov with 5:33 remaining in the third. Slavin scored with the extra attacker at 15:12, Svechnikov added his goal at 16:52 and Necas tied it up at 19:21.

Carolina hosts Arizona on Wednesday.