Seth Jarvis ended an exhausting back-and-forth Game 2 with a power play goal 3:56 into overtime, lifting the Carolina Hurricanes past the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 Thursday night and tying the Stanley Cup final at one win apiece.
The Hurricanes looked dead in the water for 45 minutes, trailing by two goals as Vegas locked down defensively and converted on its chances. Then Carolina's third period ignited with a sudden, breathless stretch that saw four goals scored in a span of minutes, one of them wiped off the board, and the entire complexion of the game flip.
Logan Stankoven started the surge when he ripped the puck away from Rasmus Andersson and banked a shot off Jeremy Lauzon past goaltender Carter Hart with 9:40 remaining. Mark Jankowski answered less than three minutes later with a sharp shot of his own, knotting the game and reversing the script from Game 1, when Vegas had erased a multigoal deficit to win.
The critical moment came when Vegas coach John Tortorella called a coach's challenge with about five minutes left on what appeared to be a goal. Frederik Andersen had used his paddle to deny Ivan Barbashev, but a scrum in the crease ensued and the puck eventually found the net. The referee waved it off for goaltender interference, ruling that Andersen had been pushed. Tortorella challenged anyway, but the NHL's situation room upheld the call.
The failed challenge cost Vegas two minutes, and that power play proved decisive. Jordan Staal redirected a Shayne Gostisbeske point shot to put Carolina ahead with 4:35 left. Vegas quickly answered when Mark Stone tied it at 6 on 5 with Hart pulled, though Jaccob Slavin inadvertently knocked it in off his own stick with 1:21 remaining.
Overtime lasted barely four minutes. After Tomas Hertl tripped Staal to send Carolina back to the power play, Jarvis buried the winner, a goal that capped the Hurricanes' worst-to-first power play performance of the series. They had been anemic with the man advantage all night and through much of the playoffs before finally finding success when it mattered most.
"We did a great job controlling our emotions," Jarvis said after the game. "We never got too high, never got too low. Just kept responding, and that's what I love about this group is we always bounce back."
The win marked the first time both teams of a Cup final's opening two games had each fallen behind by more than one goal and still captured victory, an unusual stat that reflected the wild momentum swings and depth of both rosters.
Author James Rodriguez: "Tortorella's challenge looked smart in isolation but backfired spectacularly, and in a final this tight, one failed tactical decision can swing everything."
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