RALEIGH — The Hurricanes have struggled of late getting 5-on-5 goals, particularly from their defense.
They had no such problems Tuesday night.
Jalen Chatfield scored with 2:39 left and Carolina got all of their goals from its blue line in a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the visiting Sharks at Lenovo Center.
“Tonight it was fun for the D, for that to happen,” Chatfield said, “but we couldn’t have done without a full-team effort.”
That full-team effort wasn’t there most of the night as the Hurricanes fell behind thanks to two goals by Sharks veteran Luke Kunin and trailed 2-1 entering the third period.
But Carolina found its 5-on-5 game in the final 20 minutes, outchancing San Jose 10-0, holding a 5-0 high-danger chance differential and posting a 21-3 shot attempt advantage.
That led to the equalizer early in the third period when Martin Necas set up Sebastian Aho for a one-timer that he instead slap-passed to Brent Burns, who put the puck into the vacant net for his second goal of the year and a time game at 4:11.
“It was just a great play by (Aho) and (Necas) on the rush,” Burns said. “I’m just glad I didn’t fall or miss it.”
The Hurricanes continued to pressure the rest of the period and got the go-ahead goal past Vitek Vanecek (25 saves) when Chatfield gloved down a clearing attempt and shot from the right point. The puck appeared to graze a Sharks player and went under Vanecek’s right arm for the game-winner.
“To be honest, I’ve never been scoring low, and lately I’ve been just practicing a little bit lower,” Chatfield said. “So it just so happened, subconsciously, I shot it low, and it worked out.”
San Jose pressed in the final 100 seconds, but Jordan Staal and Burns came up with key blocks and Pyotr Kochetkov made four of his 21 saves against the extra attacker for his 12th win of the season. It was the first time Carolina has allowed fewer than three goals since a 4-1 win in Philadelphia on Nov. 20, snapping a run of nine games during which it allowed 39 goals.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been going the way we would have liked the last little bit here,” Burns said, “but it’s just believing in each other, helping each other, and getting that little bit of swagger back and getting back to our game.”
The Hurricanes got off to a good start when they opened the scoring at 4:26 after William Carrier set up Shayne Gostisbehere in the left circle for his sixth goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.
The Sharks answered late in the period when 2024 first overall pick Macklin Celebrini set up Kunin in the slot. Gostisbehere blocked Kunin’s initial shot, but the puck went right back to Kunin, who quickly shot again and beat Kocheckov to tie the game with 69 seconds left in the opening period.
Puck luck hurt Gostisbehere again in the second period when his attempt to clear the puck around the boards behind the Carolina net hit the skate of referee Ghislain Hebert. That allowed William Eklund to collect the puck below the red line, and he fed it back to the left post, where Kunin took advantage of Kochetkov moving to the opposite side of the net for his second goal of the night just past the midway point of regulation.
Burns’ third period goal, however, “was the difference in the game,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, and Carolina got just its second win in the last six games.
“We found a way,” the coach said. “It was not pretty.”
Notes: Jack Drury did not come out for the second period and was ruled out with an upper-body injury. “That’s not looking good, if I was to say something,” Brind’Amour said. “So I’m assuming he’s going to be out for a while. We don’t know for sure yet.” … Burns finished with a season-high five blocked shots. … Carrier’s assist ended a nine-game point drought. Carolina is 5-1-0 when Carrier has a point.
