Hurricanes Surge By Panthers

     The Carolina Hurricanes held off the Florida Panthers 4-3 at BB&T Center on Thursday night. The Panthers had their three-game winning streak snapped with the defeat. Both clubs will play each other in Sunrise twice during a 10-day span.
     Carolina(32-23-6) got on the scoreboard first at the 5:12 mark of the first period. Brett Pesce released a high wrist shot from the high slot that went off the face of Justin Williams in the crease and past James Reimer. It was the 16th goal of the campaign for Williams.
    In the second period, the Hurricanes extended their lead to 2-0 at 4:35. Jaccob Slavin took a slapshot from the top of the zone that grazed off Williams in the slot. It was saved by Reimer, however Nino Niederreiter put in the puck with a forehand shot from the blue paint and compiled his 18th goal of the season.
     Florida(26-25-8) pulled to within goal at the 6:53 mark. Jayce Hawryluk stole the puck behind the Carolina cage. He backhanded it in front and Evgenii Dadonov popped in a one-time shot by Petr Mrazek. Dadonov was able to expand his point streak in four games.
     The Panthers evened the contest up with 10:11 left in the second on the power play. Dadonov sent a pass from the right circle ahead to Aleksander Barkov to the left of the crease and he redirected in a backhand shot. Huberdeau was credited with an assist on the play. Barkov scored his fifth goal in the last three games along with his 24th goal of the season.
     The momentum continued as the Cats scored another power-play tally with 8:52 remaining. Mike Hoffman made a pass from the right wing and Huberdeau snapped in a shot from the edge of the right circle for his 17th goal. Barkov got the secondary assist on the goal.
     The Canes tied it up 3-3 just 19 seconds into the third period on a power-play goal. A cross-ice pass from Teuvo Teravainen from the left circle went to Justin Faulk. He blasted a slapshot from the top right circle for his sixth goal.
     They would convert on another power play and regain the lead 4-3 at 2:16. Williams picked up his second goal of the game in the crease area on assists from Teravainen and Sebastian Aho. The Panthers had allowed three power-play goals in their last 19 games prior to this contest.