RALEIGH, N.C. _ The Christmas break should be a pleasant one for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canes go into the break with a three-game winning streak, beating the Boston Bruins, 3-2, in overtime Friday on a Teuvo Teravainen shot with 1:59 left in OT.
Jordan Staal scored short-handed, getting the crowd and the Canes into the game midway though the second period, and Justin Faulk had the home fans on their feet by tying the score 2-2 in the third.
In the overtime, the Canes' Sebastian Aho had an open look but missed the net. But Teravainen didn't miss, ripping a shot past goalie Anton Khudobin for sudden victory.
In the game in Boston on Dec. 1, Teravainen inadvertently kicked the puck into the Canes net in the final seconds and the Bruins won a shootout. This time Teravainen found the Bruins net.
Goalie Cam Ward, who stopped 32 shots, picked up his 12th win of the season of the Canes (15-11-7).
The game ended an unusual week for Carolina, which had Monday's game against the Detroit Red Wings postponed when a cooling-system malfunction at PNC Arena caused unsuitable ice conditions. The Canes went on the road Thursday, playing well in beating the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, and wanted to keep an impressive home ice-streak going.
Carolina is 9-0-1 in the past 10 games at PNC Arena, the only blemish a shootout loss last week to the Washington Capitals. They beat a Bruins team that has been one of the Eastern Conference's best road teams, just as they were a year ago.
They were looking to follow up a 3-1 win Thursday against the Florida Panthers with another strong effort. In net was Khudobin, the former Canes goalie who edged the Canes 2-1 in a shootout on Dec. 1.
Only the short-handed goal by Staal in the second period kept the game relatively close after 40 minutes. The Bruins, sharper from the opening faceoff, controlled the pace of the game the first 30 minutes, taking a 2-0 lead on a Ryan Spooner goal and then a power-play score from Brad Marchand in the second.
Boston outshot and outchanced the Canes the first two periods. They won the key faceoffs, were quicker to get sticks on pucks and made the neutral zone tough for the Canes to negotiate with any speed.
The Canes lead the NHL in penalty killing but the Bruins found a way to score only the eighth power-play goal against the Canes this season. Spooner got off a shot from the right point and Marchand went to the front of the net to get a piece of puck, which squeezed through the pads of goalie Cam Ward.
Spooner's goal in the first came off a Torey Krug shot that glanced off a Spooner skate near the post.
Canes coach Bill Peters said Thursday that his team didn't have a strong sense of urgency early in the game. For the first half of Friday's game, there was little if no urgency, as Canes players turned off pucks or were a step slow in getting to them.
But hockey can be a funny game, with one play changing so much.
Staal provided that play on the penalty kill. Jumping on a Bruins turnover at the blue line, he was off on a breakaway, coming in with speed and beating Khudobin with a blocker-side shot for the Canes' fifth short-handed score of the season.
Suddenly, the crowd was alive. The Canes were alive.
Peters made several line changes in the game and also had some new defensive looks. Peters broke up the Jaccob Slavin-Brett Pesce pairing that has been so effective bathed them back together in the third.
The Bruins killed off two Canes power plays in the third, but Faulk scored his seventh off an Elias Lindholm pass after Staal won an offensive-zone faceoff.
The Canes' next game is Dec. 28, when they go to Pittsburgh to face the defending Stanley Cup champs.
