The Carolina Hurricanes kept pace in the wildly competitive Metropolitan Division on Sunday with a 4-3 shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks.
Justin Williams, playing in his fourth game since returning to the team after sitting out the first half of the season, scored his second shootout-winning goal to help move the Hurricanes back into a playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Then they celebrated in the most logical way on Super Bowl Sunday -- with a football-themed Storm Surge that saw Erik Haula take the (bad!) shotgun snap, play-fake, then find Jaccob Slavin down the middle for the completion.
A SUPER SURGE 🏈 pic.twitter.com/O2IczXtpJu
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 2, 2020
The important thing for the Hurricanes, though, is the two points in the standings because everybody in the division keeps winning. As we looked on Sunday, there are six teams in this division -- including Carolina -- that are good enough to make the playoffs, but one of them is guaranteed to miss. Every point matters right now.
It was also another big day for Williams as he keeps making an impact in his return. In four games he has two goals, an assist, and two shootout deciding goals.
For the Canucks, it snaps what had been a five-game winning streak. They still ended up getting a point to build on their Pacific Division lead and are 14-3-1 in their past 18 games. They are three points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.