RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Ryan Getzlaf came close to scoring but had nothing to show for it except a stuffed breakaway and a ringing post.
He certainly didn’t miss in overtime.
Getzlaf scored 1:15 into OT, and the Anaheim Ducks rallied to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Friday night.
Pontus Aberg scored the tying goal with 3:50 left in regulation, and the Ducks won their third straight and fifth in six games.
“The biggest thing is that we’re finding a way at the moment,” Getzlaf said. “I thought we played mostly good hockey throughout this trip. … It’s about finding ways to win, and our goalie gave us a chance to do that tonight.”
Andrei Svechnikov scored an early goal for Carolina, which has earned points in five of six but went 0 for 6 on the power play for the second time this season.
“The power play needed to get one,” first-year coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That puts it away.”
John Gibson stopped 33 shots - including breakaways by Dougie Hamilton and Phil Di Giuseppe - despite minimal offensive support once again.
“It kind of seemed like at the beginning of the year, we were finding ways to lose,” Gibson said. “And now it’s starting to turn. … We’ve had a knack for finding ways to come back and winning some games that maybe we thought we were out of and maybe shouldn’t have won.”
The Ducks’ scoring average of 2.22 goals ranks ahead of only Los Angeles, and their average of 26.4 shots ranks last in the league. They haven’t scored more than three goals in any of their last five games.
“We’re OK without scoring five goals a night,” said Getzlaf, who was stopped on a second-period breakaway and rang the right post with about nine minutes left in regulation.
“Sometimes you need your goaltender,” he added, “and tonight, we needed him.”
Aberg tied it late in the third by tapping an airborne puck past Curtis McElhinney. A review confirmed the puck was not struck by a high stick.
“They got a lucky goal to tie it up - that’s really what that was,” Brind’Amour said. “And then their skilled player took over at the end.”
Getzlaf won it by slipping past the Carolina defenders at the blue line, taking a long pass from Hampus Lindholm and faking McElhinney left before beating him high.
“That was just an opportunity I saw to get behind somebody, and Hampus made a great pass,” Getzlaf said.
McElhinney finished with 27 saves but fell to 7-2-1 for the Hurricanes in their first game since struggling goaltender Scott Darling was waived and then assigned to their AHL affiliate in Charlotte.
Svechnikov scored the game’s first goal with 1:03 left in the first period. The Russian rookie took a feed from Hamilton and beat Gibson with a blast from behind the left circle.
NOTES: The Hurricanes fell to 7-0-2 when Svechnikov earns a point. … Lindholm was back for Anaheim after missing six games with a lower-body injury. … Carolina was without LW Micheal Ferland (concussion), who has a team-best 11 goals.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Wrap up a five-game eastern swing Sunday at Washington.
Hurricanes: Begin a western swing Sunday night at Los Angeles.
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