Guentzel scores in SO to lift Hurricanes to 5-4 win over Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- — Jake Guentzel scored in the shootout and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied from two goals down late to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Saturday night.

Sebastian Aho had two goals and an assist, Jordan Martinook and Seth Jarvis also scored, and Guentzel and Brent Burns each had two assists for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 36 shots.

Burns skated in his 1,400th regular season game, becoming the 42nd player in NHL history to reach the milestone.

Carolina had to kill off a penalty in overtime when Guentzel was whistled for slashing.

“You don’t feel good. ... You never want to put the team in that spot,” Guentzel said. “Penalty kill did an unbelievable job. A lot of relief.”

The teams traded chances in the 3-on-3 extra period, including the Maple Leafs power play, before Guentzel won it with a shot through Samsonov’s pads in the third round of the shootout for the only goal of the tiebreaker.

"To be able to come out in the shootout and get one, that’s the cherry on top,” Guentzel said.

John Tavares had a goal and an assist, and William Nylander, Nick Robertson and David Kampf also scored for Toronto. Morgan Rielly had two assists and Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves.

“We got good efforts,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The results sucks, but I thought we stood in there.”

Toronto was without forwards Mitch Marner (high ankle sprain) and Calle Jarnkrok (hand injury). The Hurricanes played without forward Teuvo Teravainen (upper-body injury).

With the Hurricanes trailing 4-2 late in the third period and Kochetkov pulled for an extra skater, Aho scored a power-play goal with 1:32 left. Aho then tied with his 27th goal of the season with 5.8 seconds remaining and the team playing 6-on-5 to force OT.

The teams traded chances in the extra period, including a Toronto power play, but neither could score.

Guentzel then won it in the third round of the shootout with a shot through Samsonov’s pads.

Carolina, which lost in last year’s Eastern Conference final to Florida, made some big moves ahead of last week’s trade deadline, adding Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov, while Toronto went with some depth additions.

The Maple Leafs opened the scoring at 4:47 of the second period when Tavares snapped a shot under the crossbar on a breakaway for his 21st.

Nylander made it 2-0 at 6:27 as he roofed his 36th on another break before Robertson — in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 29 — took a pass from Tavares in tight and buried his ninth upstairs for a three-goal lead.

Martinook got the Hurricanes on the board when he scored his 12th on a rebound with 6:33 remaining in the period.

Jarvis added another with 2.7 seconds left in the first when he scored his 22nd to pull the Hurricanes to 3-2.

After a scoreless second in which the Hurricanes outshot the Maple Leafs 16-14, Kampf stretched Toronto's lead to 4-2 on another breakaway when he scored his sixth through Kochetkov’s five-hole at 2:55.

“We gave them four goals,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Giving up breakaways like that … that was not typical of the way we (do) it, but I give the guys a lot of credit. Dug in and had a good finish.”

Samsonov had fans chanting his name later in the period following a short-handed glove stop on Jesper Fast before Aho pushed back.

Marner missed a third straight game, but has resumed skating. Jarnkrok got hurt in Thursday’s 6-2 victory in Philadelphia and is considered week-to-week.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: At Ottawa on Sunday night in the second of a three-game trip.

Maple Leafs: At Philadelphia on Tuesday night to open a two-game trip.

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