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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The Carolina Hurricanes were treating their 2-2 tie with the Edmonton Oilers and the point that came out of it like a gold nugget Wednesday night.
Who could blame them?
|  | | Edmonton goalie Tommy Salo makes a pad save on Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour. |
The Hurricanes, with 70 points, moved into a tie with Pittsburgh, Montreal and the New York Rangers for the final two playoff spots in the tight Eastern Conference.
"Now it's a race," said Carolina coach Paul Maurice, whose club had been chasing the pack since a five-game losing streak in mid-January. "This is the time of year when you lose a game, and we're going to lose some games, that you have to cut them off."
Glen Wesley scored on a rebound with 13:46 left as Carolina rallied from a two-goal deficit for the key point.
"It's going to be meaningful points right down to game 82," Wesley said. "It's going to be a tough grind, but we're prepared for it. We're a confident hockey club."
Carolina (4-0-10) and St. Louis are the only teams this season not to lose in overtime.
The Hurricanes had to kill a high-sticking penalty at the tail end of the extra session to Rod Brind'Amour, but got a short-handed breakaway attempt by Robert Kron that was stopped by Tommy Salo.
"I was so pumped up, my eyes went wide," Kron said of his scoring attempt. "It would have been nice to get one, but he made a good save."
Edmonton is 2-8-16 in an NHL-high 26 overtime games.
"I look at this as our best game in two weeks, from start to finish," Oilers coach Kevin Lowe said. "I'll take en effort like that in the next 11 games and we'll be in great shape."
Wesley's seventh goal came from the slot after Salo stopped a shot from the point from Sami Kapanen.
"If there is a good tie and a bad tie, this is a good one," Kapanen said. "We battled back. It wasn't an easy game. It looked like most of the time we were a half-step behind."
Rem Murray and Doug Weight each scored less than a minute after a Carolina power play to put the Oilers up 2-0 in the second.
Arturs Irbe tried to dive and stick-poke the puck away from Murray in close on the game's first goal, but missed and Murray had a open net for his sixth of the season.
Weight scored his 16th from an impossible angle less than five minutes later. After a scramble in front of the net, Weight collected the puck behind the goal line to the right of Irbe and bounced it off the inside of his pads as he was sliding across the goal mouth.
The Hurricanes finally cashed in, on their sixth power play, as Ethan Moreau was called for a four-minute high sticking penalty. Gary Roberts netted his 17th on a rebound shot from Ron Francis, who extended his point streak to a season-high eight games.
The power-play goal gave the Hurricanes at least one man-advantage score in each of their last seven games, extending their season-high streak.
"When you're up 2-0, you want to be able to finish it off," said Murray. "Even at 2-1 going into the third we were in good position on the road."
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