The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the LA Kings 3-2 in overtime Sunday afternoon at Lenovo Center.

Here are five takeaways from the win:

To me, that felt like one of the best games of the season for the Carolina Hurricanes' blueline.

The defense was active in both zones, keeping plays alive in the offensive zone with quick ups and reloads, while also denying quite a few LA entries and passing sequences in the defensive end.

"That's what we were doing all night," said netminder Brandon Bussi on the team' defensive effort in front of him. "Even if we did get caught out of position, the extra effort was there. Our ability to kind of get sticks on pucks in crucial areas, from our D corps to our forwards, the effort was there tonight."

Obviously Jaccob Slavin had a few tremendous blocks and an overall solid game, but I also really liked both K'Andre Miller and Alexander Nikishin's games.

They were great with their sticks all night long and very noticeable to me (in a good way).

Obviously Nikishin got a goal too, but I was just way more impressed with his defensive work overall.

The team limited the Kings to just 13 shots on goal through 60+ minutes, which is the fourth time this season that they've held a team to 13 or fewer shots.

As the team gets back to full health, this blueline looks to be a very strong one.

"I thought all of our D did a nice job," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "They were really flying the zone and we did a nice job of containing that and keeping pucks alive. We created a lot of opportunities from it."

It was a tough game last night for the trio of Logan Stankoven, Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall, as the Canes' second line both generated the least amount of chances and was also the only one to get outchanced too.

It felt like they were hemmed in quite a bit against LA and they struggled to get clears too when they did manage to get sticks on pucks when in the defensive zone.

They were also the trio that gave up the tying goal, as they were stuck out there after an icing and then got lost on assignments following a faceoff loss.

But on the other hand, Blake drew the penalty that led to the Hurricanes' first goal and the three were also the line that generated Carolina's second goal as well.

Say what you want about their size and their lack of physicality, but they do seem to come up with pucks a lot in the o-zone and can generate quite a bit of offense for the team when they're going and even when they're not.

As of late though, it's felt like that line has been missing a spark.

In their past three games, the three have gotten outchanced 28-40, given up nine high-danger chances and been outscored 1-4.

Obviously the line has worked throughout the year, with a 16-12 scoring edge and a 144-114 scoring chance edge, but maybe they need a bit of a shakeup.

Or maybe just the Olympic break.

With the game-winning goal last night, Sebastian Aho has now scored 18 career overtime goals (and registered 30 career overtime points).

Never mind that being far and away the best marker in franchise history, Aho is just straight up one of the best overtime producers in NHL history.

The Finnish centerman now sits in sole possession of seventh place all-time for overtime goals and since he entered the league in 2016-17, only Leon Draisaitl has scored more OT goals (20).

For a little more context, overtime was first introduced back into the league in 1983 and the 3v3 format was introduced in 2015, but still, it's very impressive how well Aho has done in the extra frame for his career.

"Just got a little bit lucky," Aho said on his goal. "It's a good thing always to shoot the puck and that was the case on that one too. Just kind of went off of either their stick or skate or something and it kind of changed the direction of it, so I was able to sneak that one in."

With the win last night, Brandon Bussi earned his 21st win in just his 25th career start.

And wouldn't you believe it, that's yet another NHL record, as Bussi surpassed both Andrew Hammond and Bill Durnan, who each had 20 wins through their first 25 games.

Bussi is actually also just the 18th goaltender in NHL history to have a stretch of 21 wins in a span of 25 games too. 

Not just to start a career, but ever in a single season (stat courtesy of @CanesStats).

Every game it feels like Bussi is reaching another milestone or setting another record and that's just because he's actually been that reliable for Carolina.

The rookie phenom hasn't had the biggest workloads, although he's single handedly won the Canes a few games here and there, but he's just making saves when the team needs him to and that's all you ask for from a netminder.

"I'm just onto the next day," Bussi said. "It feels good to win. We've been doing a lot of it and the goal is to keep on doing it. Whether it's a 6-5 game or a 1-0 game, overtime or not overtime, it feels good to find a way regardless because come crunch time and playoffs, you just have to find a way."

It was back-to-back games with blown multi-goal leads for Carolina, but with two different results at the end of them.

A tough overtime loss in Washington, followed by a much happier OT win against LA in Raleigh.

"I was really pleased by the bounce back game because that was what we needed," Brind'Amour said.

"Yesterday's game was not good enough and we obviously lost the game as well, so it was a good bounce back," Aho said. "It feels good to win this one at home. Just a good bounce back."

But it feels like blown multi-goal leads is becoming a bit of a trend for Carolina, doesn't it?

Well, actually, yes.

The Hurricanes have blown a multi-goal lead in 11 games so far this season. That's 20% of the games they've played so far this season.

In those games (@LAK, @COL, @DAL, PHI, @FLA, @TBL, FLA, MTL, COL, @WSH, LAK), they have a 4-5-2 record.

Obviously they have won more games in which they've led by multiple goals, but still it shows that there's still work to be done in terms of tightening things up.

And for those curious about how many times they've blown a three-goal lead, it's five times, in which their record is 2-1-2 (@LAK, @COL, @FLA, @TBL, @WSH).

Pair Of Injured Hurricanes Return To Practice

Alexander Nikishin Absolutely Annihilates Opponent In First Career Fight

10 Questions With Rookie Phenom Brandon Bussi

Hurricanes Assign Trio Of Players To AHL

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.

Stay updated with the most interesting Carolina Hurricanes stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.