Jordan Staal’s goal with 6:27 to play gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 comeback victory against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
The outcome extended Carolina’s points streak to 11 games. But Pittsburgh’s seven-game winning streak, which was the longest active mark in the NHL, came to a close.
Derek Stepan and Brady Skjei both had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who have three one-goal victories to begin a four-game homestand. Staal also had an assist as Carolina won its fifth straight game.
Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 23 saves as the rookie continued a stellar stretch of results. His record improved to 9-1-4.
Rickard Rakell and Brock McGinn scored for the Penguins. Goalie Casey DeSmith had 26 saves.
Of Staal’s four goals in December, two of them have counted as game-winning tallies.
McGinn notched his ninth goal 5:03 into the third period to break a 1-1 tie and put the Penguins in good shape.
Rakell, appearing in his 600th NHL game, redirected Evgeni Malkin’s delivery just five seconds into the power play at 7:40 of the second period. It was his 13th goal of the season.
Stepan, who scored at 3:25 of the second period, has just two goals this season, but they’ve come in the last three games.
Stepan had the lowest amount of ice time in the Carolina lineup a night earlier when the Hurricanes topped the Dallas Stars in overtime.
Kochetkov didn’t play Saturday night, but he worked in seven consecutive games prior to that.
DeSmith was playing for only the second time in nine games for the Penguins, who had been off since winning Thursday night at Florida.
The Penguins had been 7-0-1 this season in games in which McGinn scored.
Carolina, which had only seven shots on goal in the first period, improved to 7-1-2 when they’ve entered the third period in a tie game.
This was the fifth set of games for Carolina on back-to-back days and they improved to 5-0-0 in the back ends of those situations.
–Field Level Media
