Recap: Aho, Canes Top Wild in OT

ST. PAUL - The Carolina Hurricanes are a feisty, resilient bunch, as they earned their fourth straight victory by besting the Minnesota Wild in overtime, 5-4.
Justin Williams tallied his first goal of the season with 68 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, and Sebastian Aho netted the game-winner for the Canes, who have started the season 4-0-1.
Here are five takeaways from this evening's game.

One
Fifty-seven shots. Five goals. Two points.
Another wild, back-and-forth game. Another come-from-behind effort. Another win for the Hurricanes.
"It's just an attitude, an attitude that we're never out of it and we can get it done," Williams said. "It's very early, but we're trending in the right direction and doing a lot of good things. Because of it, we're racking up some wins."
"I thought we deserved a little better in the first couple of periods. I think we dictated the play. You knew they were going to come back and have a little surge," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "You have to give all the credit to our guys. They just kept battling back. Even when they kept getting ahead, there was no quit in our group. There's a lot of things to get better at, but I just love the way that we weren't giving up."
Two
Remember when October was a goal-scoring house of horrors for Sebastian Aho? Yeah, neither does he.
Aho tallied two goals tonight, including a much-needed power-play marker to tie the game in the third period and the game-winner in 3-on-3 overtime. Aho now leads the team in scoring (10 points) and is tied for the team lead in goals (four) through the first five games of the season.

"He's a good player," Williams said, succinctly.
It was going to be the glaring inadequacy in tonight's game, a storyline that has been simmering and ready to boil over in the Canes' first five games: Up until the midway point of the third period, the Hurricanes were 0-for-6 on the power play and had allowed two power-play goals, including Jason Zucker's one-time bomb that gave the Wild a 3-2 advantage in the third.
But when the Canes needed a power-play goal most, they got one. A long rebound off a shot from Justin Faulk bounced right to Aho, and he hammered it in the gaping cage, his third goal of the season and second point of the night.

"You just have to keep shooting. That's exactly what we started doing in the third on the PP," he said. "It's a cliché to start shooting the puck on the PP, but it was actually just that."
"Credit to the coaching staff for sticking with it, sticking with it, saying these are the guys going out, get it done, I know you can," Williams said. "Our big guys, Seabass, put one in for us. Huge."
"We needed it. They came up and got a huge one," Brind'Amour said. "We have room to get better, but you can't argue with the compete in this group right now."
In addition to his pair of goals, Aho also tallied a beauty of a primary assist in the second period on a goal that gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 advantage. Aho wheeled around the offensive zone with the puck, avoiding an Eric Staal poke check at the point. He then found Pesce cruising through the slot, and Pesce redirected Aho's pass into the net.

Three
Williams' game-tying goal, the second deficit the Canes erased in the third period, was essentially a second power-play marker, considering the Canes had the 6-on-5 advantage. Off a shot from Faulk, the puck popped around the back of the net to Williams, who settled it and scored from a tough angle. Tie game.
"That was a really good character game for us, especially for the way I felt we totally took over the game and really dictated most of the play out there," Williams said. "To be down twice in the third period, that's tough. Maybe that's something last year or the year before we would have just wilted, packed it in and said all right, good try. Our power play showed up and we scored one late. Really good win that we would have been upset if we lost."

"The simple fact is that we're creating a lot of offense, so I think they feel like it doesn't matter if we give up one. We'll at least be able to create enough chances to get back," said Brind'Amour, who is the first coach in franchise history to earn points in his first five games as head coach. "We've got a good leadership group. They don't hang their heads."
Four
That's not to say the Canes' power play isn't still somewhat of a cause for concern. Before scoring that power-play goal in the third, the Canes were just 1-for-16 on the man advantage this season (and that one conversion was an empty-net goal). It's not that the team isn't generating chances - they had 10 shots on the power play through two periods, including seven alone on the 5-on-3 and surrounding 5-on-4 sequences in the first period - but the looks they're getting are largely limited to the perimeter.
And, after that 5-on-3 in the first period, on the Wild's first power play of the game, Charlie Coyle banged in a rebound to tie the game at one.
"Our special teams are not good enough. Our power play isn't good enough, and our penalty kill is not good enough," Williams said. "That's the reason we were tied after the first period and the reason we had to battle back in this one. We'll work on it. It's only game five."
"That's generally a killer." Brind'Amour said. "You have to score there. We didn't, and it cost us. We were able to battle back."
Five
Battling back has been a calling card for this young squad early in the season. Every time an opponent has the Canes on the ropes, they fight back.
It's a belief that comes from the team, the leaders on the bench, Brind'Amour said, and it's led to a 4-0-1 start and nine of a possible 10 points.
Fun hockey.
"Game by game. We're not done. We want to get better every day," Aho said. "We're a young team. We've got to learn every day."
"The message has been pretty clear from day one," Brind'Amour said. "They believe in each other right now, and we've got to keep that momentum."
Up Next
The second half of this back-to-back set takes the Hurricanes to Winnipeg for a Sunday evening match-up with the Jets.
"We've got to take advantage of being on a good, little roll. It can turn in a heartbeat," Brind'Amour said. "We've got to take some time to enjoy what just happened because it's one of those wins you don't see very often."