Aho scores with 7 seconds left in OT, Hurricanes rally past Oilers

EDMONTON -- Sebastian Aho scored with seven seconds remaining in overtime for the Carolina Hurricanes, who rallied from two goals down in the third period to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Aho won it with a one-timer from the right face-off circle off a pass from Martin Necas on a 2-on-1 rush.

Necas had a goal and two assists, and Shayne Gostisbehere extended his goal streak to four games for the Hurricanes (3-2-0), who are 2-1-0 on a season-long six-game road trip. Frederik Andersen made 33 saves.

“I just try to do my part and make sure we don’t go down 3-0, obviously that’s a big hole to climb out of,” said Andersen, who improved to 18-2-2 all-time against the Oilers. “But we obviously had a great power play coming in to start the third, got some momentum and kept on going and got rewarded for the tie.”

Connor McDavid scored twice, and Stuart Skinner made 30 saves for the Oilers (2-4-1).

“You need your best players to step up,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Look at their goals, who’s making the plays, right? The best guys have to do that, have to get on the scoresheet and our guys did tonight, which obviously was the difference.”

Gostisbehere cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal 44 seconds into the third period. He worked a give-and-go with Necas and beat Skinner with a one-timer from the top of the left circle. The goal came after Skinner made a series of saves, including with his blocker on a sprawling windmill to rob Necas of an open net.

"I thought both goalies made some incredible saves,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Skinner in the first period where, yeah, we had the lead but a lot of it had to do with Stu.

“After they scored to make it 2-2, Andersen made some really good saves, especially on the flurry by [Jeff] Skinner. That's a difference maker, outcome of the game is maybe a little different there.”

Necas tied it 2-2 at 13:29, putting in a return pass from Eric Robinson at the right post on the rush.

“I feel like there were a lot of penalties in the first half of the game,” Necas said. “We took four penalties in the first 30 minutes, which kind of takes your momentum a little bit, and we got it going the last 10 minutes of the second.

“We scored a goal on the power play at the beginning of the third, which kind of gave us hope. And then just rolled them over.”

McDavid put the Oilers ahead 1-0 at 3:34 of the first period, gaining the zone and scoring with a wrist shot from the left dot that beat Andersen high glove side.

“It was a pretty good game from both teams, entertaining,” McDavid said. “It was not the best defensively on both sides, I would say. Good goaltending, it had a bit of everything. I think we see good signs. We had an opportunity to win tonight and we didn’t.

“I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win in Dallas, we didn’t (4-1 loss on Saturday). If you give yourself a chance in games, you are going to win more than you lose. If you are playing the way that we know we can play, we just haven’t seen it enough.”

McDavid made it 2-0 at 2:30 of the second period with a power-play goal. He worked a give-and-go in the right corner with Leon Draisaitl, who sent back a no-look, backhand pass for the finish at the top of the crease.

“You don’t want to take any breaks out there,” Andersen said when asked about McDavid. “You definitely know when Connor has the puck some dangerous stuff can happen and obviously he’s a hell of a player.

“So, the guys did a pretty good job of limiting him even though he’s so dynamic and can create plays out of barely any room.”

NOTES: Gostisbehere matched Dougie Hamilton (2019-20) for the longest goal streak by a defenseman in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. … Aho extended his point streak to four games (two goals, four assists) ... McDavid pushed his point streak to six games (three goals, five assists) ... Draisaitl extended his point streak to four games (two goals, three assists).