Hurricanes blow lead but top Maple Leafs in overtime

VIDEO PLAYLIST

• Hurricanes Hold Off Leafs' Surge, Win In OT

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Game Information

Arena: Air Canada Centre Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Referees: Dennis LaRue, Justin St. Pierre Linesmen: Scott Cherrey, Steve Miller

Attendance: 19,266 (102.5% full)

Team Stat Comparison
236	Goals	244
221	Goals Against	286
70	Power Play Goals	62
59	Power Play Goals Allowed	78
8	Shorthanded Goals	6
9	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	7
802	Penalty Minutes	1125
10	Average Penalty Minutes	14

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD			CAR	TOR
2:20		Tuomo Ruutu Assists: Chad LaRose	1	0
5:06		Dennis Seidenberg (Power Play) Assists: Joe Corvo, Ray Whitney	2	0
8:53		Chad LaRose Assists: Anton Babchuk, Josef Melichar	3	0
13:52		Niklas Hagman Assists: Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski	3	1
18:50		Ryan Bayda Assists: Ray Whitney	4	1
2ND PERIOD			CAR	TOR
3:40		Mikhail Grabovski (Power Play) Assists: Niklas Hagman, Nikolai Kulemin	4	2
14:32		Mike Van Ryn Assists: Nik Antropov, Matt Stajan	4	3
3RD PERIOD			CAR	TOR
1:29		Mikhail Grabovski Assists: Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina	4	4
OT			CAR	TOR
1:52		Niclas Wallin Assists: Tuomo Ruutu, Sergei Samsonov	5	4

TORONTO -- The Maple Leafs did all they could to rally back from a three-goal deficit. Toronto just didn't have enough to pull out the victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Fast Facts

• Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette tied John Tortorella for most wins by an American-born coach with 239.

• Carolina has won five of its last six meetings vs. Toronto.

• The Maple Leafs have outshot their opponent in eight consecutive games and have at least 35 shots in seven of their last eight contests. They had 42 on Tuesday; the Hurricanes had 24.

-- ESPN research

Niclas Wallin scored 1:52 into overtime as the Hurricanes blew a three-goal lead before pulling out a 5-4 victory over the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

With the game tied in the third period, Toronto had a five-on-three advantage for 1:13 but couldn't put home a goal.

"I thought after that, a little bit of the momentum left them," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "Not that we turned it on that much, but it became pretty even at that point. No team really dominated from that point on, so we did grab some momentum and settled things down with that kill."

Tuomo Ruutu, Dennis Seidenberg, Chad LaRose and Ryan Bayda also had goals for Carolina (7-3-2).

Mikhail Grabovski had two goals and Niklas Hagman and Mike Van Ryn also scored for the Maple Leafs (5-4-4).

There were 10 goals scored when the teams faced each other in Raleigh on Sunday, so it wasn't all that surprising to see the offense carry over to the second half of the back-to-back series.

"We've got to hammer it home," said Toronto coach Ron Wilson. "We've changed our focus a little bit -- we thought we had [defense] in the can and have gone more into the attack mode, more shots and focused on offense. We just have to hammer [defense] home."

The Hurricanes grabbed a 3-0 lead before the first period was half over.

Ruutu beat Vesa Toskala with a low shot at 2:20, Seidenberg scored on a power play at 5:06 and LaRose tallied his fourth goal of the season at 8:53 after the puck bounced out from the end boards.

Toronto started its comeback when Hagman finished a give-and-go with Nikolai Kulemin by beating Cam Ward with a high shot at 13:52 of the first period.

"We dug ourselves a hole in the first [period] and it was too big to get out of almost," said Toronto defenseman Jeff Finger. "We salvaged a point but I think everybody agrees that that's not good enough in the first. It pretty much cost us two points."

The Hagman-Grabovski-Kulemin unit was easily Toronto's best on this night, providing energy and the team's second goal after Bayda had made it 4-1 for Carolina. Grabovski got his fourth of the season at 3:40 of the second period by cashing in a great cross-crease pass from Hagman on a power play.

Van Ryn set up a dramatic third period by ripping a shot behind Ward at 14:32 to narrow the Hurricanes lead to 4-3. Toronto outshot Carolina 16-5 in the middle frame and carried all the momentum into the final 20 minutes.

That was evident early as Grabovski's second of the game at 1:29 of the third period tied things up. That gave the flashy Belarussian four goals in two games.

Game notes
Toronto's Ian White dressed for the second straight game after being a scratch in the first 11... Carlo Colaiacovo, Jonas Frogren and Ryan Hollweg sat out for the Leafs ... Toronto has outshot its opponents in nine straight games ... The Hurricanes have serious injury problems: Matt Cullen (leg), Brandon Sutter (concussion), Joni Pitkanen (knee), Frantisek Kaberle (leg) and Justin Williams (Achilles tendon) are all currently on the shelf ... Finger played his 100th career NHL game ... Announced attendance was 19,266.