PAUL, Minn. — Stefan Noesen scored a goal with his face midway through the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Jordan Staal had a goal and assist and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Hurricanes, which won for the first time in three games and improved to 10-1-2 in their last 13 road games.
Just as a power play was expiring, Teuvo Teravainen passed down low to Jack Drury. His shot went off the blocker of Filip Gustavsson and deflected off Noesen’s face near the left post as he was tied up by Dakota Mermis.
“We needed to get some of those, we haven’t had any in forever. That was nice to see. Eventually they kind of even out supposedly, but I think we’re still due a few more of those, but we’ll take it,” said coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Connor Dewar and Jonas Brodin scored for Minnesota, which lost in regulation for just the second time in 10 games since the All-Star break. Ryan Hartman assisted on both goals and Gustavsson stopped 25 shots.
The loss was two points badly needed by the Wild, 7-2-1 since the All-Star break. Minnesota is tied with St. Louis, six points back of Nashville for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Minnesota’s next two games are against the Predators and Blues.
“We can’t get too low on losses here and we can’t get too high on wins. It’s an emotional time for sure. We got to play the long game and just stick with it,” said defenseman Declan Chisholm.
Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 28 saves and has allowed just 13 goals in eight games played this month.
Losing for just the third time in 21 games when leading after the first period, Minnesota had two top chances on an early third-period power play, but Kirill Kaprizov whistled a shot off the post and Kochetkov stuffed Marco Rossi at the edge of the crease.
“Today was a pretty good game. We could have won that game, for sure, but today it just didn’t bounce our way,” Brodin said.
Held without a shot on goal for nearly eight minutes, the Wild struck first halfway through the first period when Dewar outmuscled Brett Pesce in the slot, turned and put a puck past Kochetkov for his first goal in 10 games.
Carolina controlled much of the first period, but only scored once. A slapshot from Jaccob Slavin hit Jordan Martinook and Staal lifted in the loose puck at 15:26.
With the assist, Slavin tied Justin Faulk for the most points by a defenseman (258) in Whalers/Hurricanes franchise history.
“You don’t really judge him by his stats. His impact to the group is far, far greater,” Brind’Amour said.
Minnesota added a goal with 20.3 seconds left in the period when a long wrist shot from Brodin found its way through traffic for a 2-1 lead.
The roles were reversed the final moments of the second period when Svechnikov converted a feed from Seth Jarvis with 24.3 seconds left to make it 2-2. His shot went off the inside right pad of a sprawling Gustavsson and across the line.
“It wasn’t the prettiest, but we got it done. Two points is huge at this time of year,” Slavin said.
The Hurricanes play at Columbus on Thursday.
