RALEIGH — It took the Carolina Hurricanes nearly 40 minutes to get a puck past Winnipeg goalie Eric Comrie.
Once they finally did it, they had no trouble doing it a couple more times.
Teuvo Teravianen scored with 30 seconds left in the second period to halve the Jets’ two-goal lead, then Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis scored in the first half of the third period as the Hurricanes rallied for a 4-2 win in front of 17,587 Thursday at PNC Arena.
“Roddy’s pregame speed today was, ‘What are you going to do after bad things happen?’” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “(We were) not off to a great start, but stick with it and it just teaches resiliency. And that’s what you need, especially going into playoffs.”
It looked for a while like the Hurricanes were destined for an all-too-familiar “40-plus shots but no points in the standings” night, but Teravainen’s 4-on-3 power play goal — on the 34th of Carolina’s 44 shots of the night — with 30 seconds left in the second period opened the floodgates.
“We’ve had a lot of these in the last month where you can’t ask for much more,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of his tam’s recent hard-luck losses. “The other goalie was playing great against us and it was like the same thing. And I think the key was just breaking through there at the end of the second.”
The Hurricanes continued the onslaught in the third period.
Andrei Svechnikov — playing against older brother Evgeny — carried the puck into the Jets’ end and backhanded a shot wide, retrieved his miss and weaved his way through the Winnipeg defense.
Comrie (42 saves) stopped his wrist shot from the slot, but Svechnikov got a second shot on net and Slavin’s wide-angle rebound shot crossed the goal line just before Martin Necas got a stick on it to tie the game at 4:10 of the third.
“In the third period, Svech kind of took over there,” Brind’Amour said. “He made a couple individual plays that led to a goal. That was a big turning point there too, getting that one in the third right away.”
Then Jarvis took over, getting position in front of the net and screening a point shot from Brendan Smith.
The shot knocked off Comrie’s mask and then off Jarvis, who out-battled Winnipeg defenseman Nate Schmidt and knocked in the rebound while falling to the ice for the go-ahead goal at 8:21. The Jets challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld.
“I just kind of weaseled my way between the D and the goalie,” Jarvis said, “and I was just thanking God that it didn’t get called off.”
Brind’Amour continues to be impressed by the 20-year-old who has 15 goals in his rookie season.
“You’ve got to remember, he’s just new to the league and a young kid and not a big guy,” the coach said. “So there’s a lot going against him there, but he’s definitely maturing right before our eyes.”
The goal was particularly special for Jarvis, who is a Winnipeg native and grew up watching and rooting for many of the current Jets.
“That was awesome,” Jarvis said of scoring against his hometown team. “That’s definitely one of the highlights of my career so far, scoring against them. And it being the game-winning goal makes it a little bit sweeter.”
Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal with 47 seconds left to seal the win, which kept Carolina two points ahead of the Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division with four regular season games remaining.
Things didn’t look so good after the first 20 minutes when the Jets jumped out to a lead by scoring twice at even strength.
After a Jets power play was nullified by a Paul Stastny holding penalty, Kyle Connor went at Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo at 4-on-4. DeAngelo swatted the puck away, but Pierre-Luc Dubois retrieved it. DeAngelo and Teravainen both went after him, leaving Connor alone for his 44th goal of the season at 7:10 of the first.
Then Dubois called his own number at 18:55, wristing a shot through the legs of Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce and into the top left corner past Antti Raanta (20 saves) for a 2-0 Jets lead.
A 19-shot second period finally paid dividends when the Hurricanes scored on the power play with their final shot of the middle frame.
With play at 4-on-4 after Dubois and Vincent Trocheck took matching minors, Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey was called for hooking on Sebastian Aho.
Aho and the Hurricanes made the Jets pay when he set up Teravainen for a shot that beat Comrie for his 20th goal of the season and a 2-1 Winnipeg lead with 30 seconds left in the second period.
“He’s hard on himself, so it was good to see it go in,” Brind’Amour said of Teravainen breaking out of a two-points-in-six-games funk to score.
It was also good to see Carolina’s power play score for the second time in three games after going seven straight without a goal.
“We’ve been trying to work on it every day,” Teravainen said. “Sometimes you don’t get the bounces, but I think there was some (improvement). … It’s all about little battles and taking care of the puck a little better. So I think we’re getting better.”
Notes: Jeff Daniels, who was struck with a puck during the morning skate and left the ice bleeding from the top of his head, was able to be on the bench for the game with the wound stitched up. … Tony DeAngelo matched his career high with seven shots on goal. He also had that many shots on Jan. 9, 2020, when he had a hat trick and five points for the Rangers in a 6-3 win over the Devils. … Brendan Smith finished with six shots, also matching his career high. He had done it twice before: March 12, 2015, and Nov. 23, 2013, both losses when he was with the Red Wings. … Andrei Svechnikov got his 38th assist, a new career high. Evgeny Svechnikov played just 3:59 for the Jets. … Carolina now has five players with at least 20 goals.
