Metropolitan Division Clinched! Hurricanes Overcome Bruins (and Referees) in OT Thriller

James Guillory-Imagn Images In the Carolina Hurricanes’ final game in Lenovo Center of the regular season, they sent their fans home happy as they overcame the Boston Bruins (and the referees) with a 6-5 overtime win, clinching the Metropolitan Division. As the game opened, Eric Robinson was out of the lineup in favor of Nicolas Deslauriers, but the Hurricanes appeared a bit disjointed defensively. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour had shoved the defensive lines into the ol’ blender, which saw Jaccob Slavin paired with Shayne Gostisbehere, K’Andre Miller paired with Jalen Chatfield, and Alexander Nikishin paired with Sean Walker.

It was a rare opportunity for Nikishin to play on his natural side, and it was ultimately the only pairing to remain untouched in the following frames. A bit of an interesting thing to note here… Rod Brind'Amour put the defensive lines in the blender tonight against the Boston Bruins Jaccob Slavin — Shayne Gostisbehere K'Andre Miller — Jalen Chatfield Alexander Nikishin — Sean Walker #CarolinaCulture #NHLBruins #NHL — Queen of the Puck (@rbarkleyhockey) April 7, 2026 With the Bruins’ first shot of the game, Hampus Lindholm found the back of the net . However, the lead was short-lived as the Hurricanes scored twice in 1:34 – one from Andrei Svechnikov , who notched his 30th goal of the season, matching his career high, and one from K’Andre Miller .

Goaltender Interference: Disappointed, but Not Surprised Soon after, Morgan Geekie tied the game , and before the end of the period, Geekie scored his second of the game. However, the second goal for the former Hurricanes was peculiar . As the puck whizzed by goaltender Brandon Bussi, it appeared that David Pastrnak had run into him, making contact inside of his crease.

Brind’Amour took the timeout to review the play before making the decision to challenge it for goaltender interference, but it ultimately remained on the board. The official ruling from the NHL on the play was that the contact from Pastrnak did not impact Bussi’s ability to play his position. …I disagree, but it is what it is – and it is far from surprising that the Hurricanes were duped by a goalie interference ruling.