It's funny how hockey works sometimes.
One night, you take a bad penalty that sets off the chain reaction to your team's demise.
The next?
You will your team to victory by scoring your first goal of the season, the game-winner at that.
The Carolina Hurricanes rallied back from a two-goal hole to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 Sunday evening at PNC Arena thanks to a late-period goal by Andrei Svechnikov.
"Obviously it's kind of a relief, but I actually wasn't thinking at all about how I hadn't scored for 10 games or whatever," Svechnikov said. "I knew it was going to come. Just about timing, and obviously it was the right timing and right moment. Huge win for us.
Through two periods, the Hurricanes were controlling the pace of play, but the stellar play of Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins and just an absolute lack of bounces, saw the score remain 0-0.
"There was not much more we could have done," said head coach Rod Brind'Amour. "Our power play looked good, we got a ton of opportunities. We were doing it the way we needed to do it and their goalie was making some unbelievable saves. [Necas] could of had at least two or three tonight. He was all over it. And they did what they do which was block a ton of shots and eat pucks and wait for their opportunities. I was happy, obviously with the win, but the way we played was good."
Not to be overshadowed though was the solid play of Pyotr Kochetkov. The Russian netminder turned aside 21 shots and made some truly impressive saves, including his signature diving poke check.
However, after 10 minutes of action in the third, the Canes were down 2-0.
It was a combination of unfortuante bounces: a shot that deflected off of Brady Skjei's stick and then the shoulder of Pyotr Kochetkov and then another shot that went off of Skjei's back.
But that's hockey sometimes.
"You can't fault [Kochetkov] on the goals," Brind'Amour said. "Just two weird things that happened. I give him a lot of credit. That's what we need. If we get a goaltending performance like that every night, it will bode well for us."
Carolina didn't lower their heads and sulk though. Instead, they went to work and kept trying to chip away at the Blue Jackets lead.
The first goal came right at the halfway point. After swapping Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen, things started to click.
"That was a pretty easy switch, but you could tell we needed a little something," Brind'Amour said. "I always give [Assistant Coach] Jeff Daniels credit for that because I'm like, 'What do I gotta do here? We need to change something,' and he's like, 'We can try this. We can try that.' It was his suggestion and obviously it worked."
Teravainen hit Martin Necas streaking into the slot, but Merzlikins robbed him. Moments later though, Teravainen made the exact same pass, this time to Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and the Finnish center made it count.
Then on the new top line, Sebastian Aho won a offensive-zone draw, a little chaos ensues and Svechnikov finds Skjei above the paint for the equalizer.
"I think I got three tonight," Skjei said. "Two off me for them and then I got one for us. ... I was just trying to get lost out there a little bit. Confuse the other team. A little faceoff play in the o-zone and then I just tried to crash the net and get open. I'll take it for sure."
Carolina wasn't done with Columbus yet though. With the clock counting down the last moments of regulation, Svechnikov knocked the puck off Erik Gudbranson's stick.
Aho collected it, entered the offensive zone and hit Svechnikov down the middle and the Russian winger wasted no time putting his team ahead.
"It's going to give me some confidence, but I still feel... I know how I can play and I'm not there yet, but I know it's going to happen soon," Svechnikov said.
It was an emphatic win after the disappointing 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday and gets Carolina back on the right foot.