Hurricanes stun Golden Knights to tie Stanley Cup Final | Takeaways

RALEIGH, N.C. – For more than 50 minutes on Thursday night, the Carolina Hurricanes looked like a team running out of time. Now, they’ve turned the Stanley Cup Final into a best-of-five, rallying from a two-goal deficit and beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 on an overtime goal by Seth Jarvis.

Down 2-0 deep in the third period, and in danger of going down 2-0 in the series, Carolina got goals from Logan Stankoven, Mark Jankowski and Jordan Staal in the final 9 minutes, 40 seconds, weathered a goal by Mark Stone to tie the game 3-3 and won it on Jarvis’ shot 3:36 into overtime.

Staal’s goal came on a power-play tip-in past Vegas goaltender Carter Hart with 4:35 remaining in the third. Carolina had the opportunity after a failed coach’s challenge by the Golden Knights. Officials had blown the whistle before the puck slid past Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen following a netfront scramble.

Andersen allowed goals on two of the first six shots he faced, and the Hurricanes spent the majority of the game struggling to generate the zone time necessary to dig their way out of a two-goal deficit. Early in the third period, Vegas had nearly pulled even in shot attempts – a rarity for any Carolina opponent and an indicator of just how lopsided the game felt.

From there, the push began. Stankoven jump-started the Hurricanes with an impressive individual effort at 10:20 of the third period, forcing a turnover by Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson behind Hart and beating Hart on a wraparound. Jankowski scored 2 minutes, 26 seconds later on a rifled shot from the high slot. Hart finished with 22 saves on 26 shots.

Brettzky Howden

It’s been a dream postseason for Howden, who surpassed his goal total from the entire regular season with his 12th and 13th goals of the playoffs on Thursday night. The leading goal scorer of the postseason had one of the biggest performances of his career in Game 2.

First, he opened the scoring 13 minutes into the first period with a wrist shot that beat Frederik Andersen’s glove. Vegas winger Mitch Marner pitchforked the puck high out of his own zone, and Howden raced Hurricanes defender Sean Walker to the loose puck. The two engaged, and Howden tossed Walker to the ice, skated in alone and buried the shot. It was Marner’s league-leading 23rd point of the postseason.

Howden made it 2-0 midway through the second period with another strong drive to the Carolina net. He caught a pass from Ivan Barbashev in the neutral zone with speed, muscled around Hurricanes defender Jaccob Slavin and tucked the puck between Andersen’s outstretched pad and the post.

Howden leads all players with 13 goals this postseason, after scoring only 12 in 58 games during the regular season. He’s only the seventh player in NHL history to do that. The others were Claude Lemieux three times (1986 with Montreal, 1995 with New Jersey and 1997 with Colorado), Jaden Schwartz with St. Louis in 2019, Marian Gaborik with Los Angeles in 2014, Patrick Sharp with Chicago in 2013, Sergei Fedorov with Detroit in 1998 and John Druce with Washington in 1990. — Granger

Canes’ power outage ends

Carolina’s penalty kill is a ridiculous 56 for 60 in the playoffs (93.3%), including 4 for 4 Thursday.

But as good as the Canes’ penalty kill has been, their power play has been abysmal all postseason until coming through on Staal’s go-ahead goal with 4:35 to go.

Carolina’s power play had been 0 for 2 with one shot on goal, being outshot by its own penalty kill 2-1 at this juncture. One of those power plays came with a chance to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period.

But finally, after Tortorella’s coach’s challenge failed, the Hurricanes were gifted a power play and Gostisbehere let it rip for the Staal redirection.

In overtime, Seth Jarvis scored on the power play, improving Carolina’s record to 8 for 61 (13.1% and 4 for 31 (12.9%) at home. It was 2 for its last 26 (7.6%) over eight games before Staal’s goal.

Boston won the Cup with an 11.4% power play in 2011, but that’s not the recipe for success, to be blunt. — Russo

McNabb injured

Brayden McNabb was limited to just seven shifts totaling 5:39 of ice time before exiting the game with a scary-looking injury.

The Golden Knights defenseman was struck in the face by a Nikolaj Ehlers one-timer during the first period, immediately falling to his knees after the puck made contact with his visor. McNabb skated off under his own power and didn’t return to the game.

While there was no official word on his condition from the team, ESPN reported on its broadcast that McNabb was taken to the hospital for observation.

McNabb typically skates alongside Shea Theodore on the Golden Knights’ top defense pairing. Jeremy Lauzon and Dylan Coghlan each took shifts in his place with the team down to five healthy defenseman for almost 50 minutes.

If McNabb isn’t able to return for Game 3 on Saturday night, Kaedan Korczak or Ben Hutton would be most likely to draw into the lineup. — Johnston