“In this town, your luck can change just that quickly.“
I was inside the Lenovo Center after that abysmal second period of Thursday night. How could we feel any worse after that period?
Then here comes the second period of Game 3.
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Time to flush it. Reset. What can the Carolina Hurricanes do to prepare for Game 4?
A big save and some hustle changed the direction of Saturday night. And hopefully the series.
Is this the first time that a double overtime loss was not heartbreaking?
Carolina lost 5-4 Saturday night, but the tenacity of this team has the Caniacs hopeful.
The game started tight and stayed that way throughout the first period. The Canes had the standard lines at the start of the game, but switched them to the combinations of the third period of Game 2 soon after the start of the game.
The first scoring chance came at the 13-minute mark. Seth Jarvis, skating with Jordan Staal and Nikolaj Ehlers, found the Captain behind the Vegas defense on a transition rush. Jarvis put it right on Staal’s stick, and the redirect went right into Carter Hart’s breadbasket.
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Jalen Chatfield left the bench with about five minutes left with an apparent wrist injury after his stick got wedged against the boards and a Golden Knights player.
The next Grade A for Carolina was a K’Andre Miller headman pass to Jarvis. He created space, dangled the puck, and put one right off the mask of Hart. It was clear from that play that Jarvis had gotten his confidence back.
Chatfield returned to the ice just as William Carrier went back to the locker room. After a hit on Vegas, Carrier was holding his elbow in discomfort.
Near the end of the period, another great scoring chance started with a great defensive play by Miller. After breaking up a Vegas pass, he got up to 20 miles an hour on the right wing to put an uncontested backhander on Hart.
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The Golden Knights had zero shots on goal for the last 15:13 of the first. The Hurricanes were able to control more possession as the period went on, closing with a +7 in Corsi as the first period ended.
The game completely flipped in the second.
Just 36 seconds into the period, Carolina pinched on Brett Howden, but he was able to chip it to a streaking Mark Stone, who put it past Frederik Andersen on a breakaway.
After a challenge by the Canes, it was determined that Howden was offside and the goal was removed.
In what would be the last sustained offensive play by the Hurricanes in the period, Carolina was able to get a couple of good chances after the Vegas goal was waved off, including Taylor Hall all alone in the high slot.
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Just a couple of minutes later, a bounce off the end boards led to a Jack Eichel goal. The Canes challenged again, and it was determined that Ivan Barbashev interfered with Andersen by colliding with his head in the crease. Another Vegas goal was waved off.
After that disallowed goal, the Golden Knights cranked the pressure to 11 and never let up.
At the 9:44 mark, the Hurricanes had an awful penalty for too many men on the ice. This was not one of those bench infractions where the puck gets hit near the bench as the players are making a change. All six players were down the ice, a glimpse of how the Canes were starting to overplay and be out of position.
Just 10 seconds into the penalty, Vegas made Carolina pay. Jaccob Slavin pressured the defender, and Chatfield did not collapse into the slot, leaving Tomas Hertl wide open above the crease for an easy one-timer.
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Just 16 seconds later, a blind pass by Mitch Marner to the slot bounced off Sean Walker’s stick and into the back of the net.
And just like that, the Canes were officially down 2-0.
After this point, Carolina stopped skating for the puck and stopped putting pressure on Vegas. The Canes were reaching, coasting, and frankly, stopped hustling.
With five and a half minutes left in the second, the Hurricanes failed to clear and ended up falling all over themselves. Marner gathered the loose puck, was alone in the slot, and deked Andersen out of his skates for his second goal of the night.
Andersen came up big on a breakaway at the 3:26 mark due to the Canes pressing and overplaying the puck. But just 20 seconds later, Marner ripped a slapshot from the top of the circle and beat Andersen blocker side for the fastest hat trick in Stanley Cup Final history.
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Brandon Bussi relieved Andersen to start the third period. Bussi had not seen the ice since a win against the New York Islanders on April 14.
Soon after the start of the period, the Canes announced Carrier would not return to the game due to an upper-body injury, likely his arm or elbow, sustained during a hit in the first.
Just three minutes into the third, Carolina had its first chance on the power play. Only 45 seconds elapsed until Marner had a shorthanded breakaway, and Sebastian Aho had to chop away to negate the chance.
Marner was awarded a penalty shot. Bussi was patient and denied Marner’s golden chance for his fourth goal of the game.
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After that terrific save, Bussi and the Canes settled down. Carolina started doing the small things, blocking shots and getting man-to-man pressure, and it culminated with the Hurricanes finally being rewarded.
Jarvis outplayed the Vegas defender in the corner, got the puck to Jordan Martinook, and his patience against Hart got the Hurricanes on the board.
And the Canes did not stop there.
Just 26 seconds later, Aho won an individual battle and found a streaking Taylor Hall in the middle of the ice for the second Carolina goal of the game.
And 13 seconds after that, the Hurricanes scored again. Off the faceoff, Eric Robinson hustled to gather the puck, got it to Slavin, and Staal tipped it in to tie the game.
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The Canes scored the fastest three goals in Stanley Cup Final history, tallying three in just 39 seconds.
And all of a sudden, there was a new game in Las Vegas.
With eight minutes to go, Jarvis clipped the puck out of a play, and after a conference by the referees and linemen, the Golden Knights were on the power play. Carolina got the best chance during that sequence off a hustle play by Staal during a shorthanded attempt.
Bussi stood tall during a burst with under six minutes to play, giving the Canes a chance down a goal.
With just under five minutes to play, the Hurricanes were putting the pressure on the Golden Knights. Noah Hanifin fell into his own goaltender, and Vegas retaliated against the flop with Rasmus Andersson climbing a ladder and tackling Staal from behind. Surprisingly, no penalties were called, and play continued.
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Veteran defenseman Shea Theodore lofted the puck out of play with 2:55 left in the third, and the Canes were on the power play.
After Carolina controlled the play in the offensive end, the extra attacker was sent out for the six-on-four advantage after the Canes returned to the Knights’ end of the ice.
A key keep by Aho led to Staal putting it on net, and Andrei Svechnikov pushing it to the back of the net.
A theme of the game was reviews, and the officials huddled to make sure Ehlers did not interfere with Hart. Nic Dowd shoved Ehlers into the back of the net, and another cut-and-dry review ended with the Hurricanes completing one of the most historic third-period comebacks in NHL history.
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Welcome to overtime.
If you want to be simplistic, the first overtime was split into three stanzas. The Hurricanes came out of the locker room ready, controlling the play for the first third of the game.
Vegas did not register a shot on goal until the 9:53 mark of the period. But once they got going, the Knights put pressure on the Canes and had a couple of great chances.
As the period wound down, Carolina regained momentum. The best chance of the period was a Jarvis tip with 3:30 to go. He had a great feed, but just could not put the puck on net.
The Canes controlled most of the play during the first overtime period, but were outshot 7-6.
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From the start of the second overtime, the best plays were by Bussi. Knowing that the Canes were dominating in the faceoff circle, Bussi made an extra effort to cover the puck and slow the game down.
Despite a couple of chances, this game was determined by some puck luck. Just over five minutes into double overtime, an errant Theodore shot bounced off the end boards, was not able to be corralled by Martinook, and deflected off Bussi’s skate into the net.
Down 4-0 heading into the third period, the Hurricanes were down and out. The team did not complete the comeback, but forcing overtime was historic.
Two goals were puck luck, two were defensive collapses, and one was a goalie needing to make a save.
The Hurricanes must take the extra day off to fix two of those, and the other must come from the player between the pipes.
Carolina is back in action on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 8:00 PM on ABC.
