Hurricanes' comeback, OT win in Game 2 provides new life in Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Seth Jarvis fired a shot from the left circle, the puck hit the back of the net and the fans leapt from their seats after sitting on the edges of them throughout the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Game 2 at Lenovo Center on Thursday, coming back from a 2-0 third-period deficit, taking a 3-2 lead, giving up the tying goal late in regulation and scoring the winner at 3:56 of overtime.

This, after Vegas defeated Carolina 5-4 in Game 1 here Tuesday, coming back from a 2-0 deficit, taking the lead twice, giving up the tying goal twice and scoring the winner with 3:24 left in the third period.

For the first time in NHL history, teams have traded multigoal comeback wins to open the Cup Final. The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 entering Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“This is exciting,” Jarvis said with a laugh. “This is what playoff hockey’s all about, is tight games and momentum swings, and you never really know what’s going to happen next, so I don’t think you can ask any more for a playoff series.”

Game 1 was fun. Game 2 was even more dramatic.

Halfway through the third period, the Golden Knights led 2-0 and looked like they were about to take a 2-0 series lead back to Las Vegas. They had won seven straight games, including four straight on the road, and were 8-0 when leading after two periods in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They were smothering the Hurricanes defensively.

One of the loudest arenas in the NHL had gone quiet.

“Somebody had to step up,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Somebody had to make a play, and that’s what happened.”

Carolina forward Logan Stankoven, 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, won a puck battle behind the net with Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who is 6-1, 202. He took the puck to the front of the net, and it went in off Vegas defenseman Jeremy Lauzon at 10:20, putting the Hurricanes on the board.

Just like that, the arena was loud and rowdy again, the fans roaring and chanting, “Let’s go, Canes!”

“The building got going,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. “Obviously, we just needed a spark, and ‘Stanky’ did a great job obviously getting us going. The building is a tough building to play in when it gets going like that, and the boys start to feel pretty good about themselves, and we got going.”

Lying on the ice with Lauzon on top of him inside the Vegas blue line, Carolina forward William Carrier batted the puck to his left. Teammate Mark Jankowski fired it past goalie Carter Hart’s glove at 12:46, tying the game 2-2.

“All of a sudden now, the game starts over,” Brind’Amour said.

Vegas came close to taking a 3-2 lead. Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen made three straight saves on forward Ivan Barbashev, and Barbashev poked at the puck during a scramble in the crease. The puck slipped over the line at the 15-minute mark, but the referee signaled no goal. The Golden Knights lost a coach’s challenge that there was no goalie interference and took a penalty for delay of game.

The Hurricanes took a 3-2 lead on the ensuing power play when Staal deflected a shot by defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere at 15:25.

Bedlam.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The Golden Knights lead the postseason with seven comeback wins, including four in the third period.

They pressed with the goalie pulled late in regulation and got a lucky bounce to tie the game 3-3 with 1:21 to go. Forward Mitch Marner floated a shot on net. The puck went off Andersen’s blocker and off captain Mark Stone, and Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin batted it into his own net.

Finally, Carolina got a power play when Staal was tripped by Vegas center Tomas Hertl at 3:17 of overtime, and Jarvis cashed in with a one-timer to win it. His teammates mobbed him at center ice as the fans roared and waved white rally towels.

“You get a new kind of shot of life,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s what it feels like, and that’s what we definitely needed. I’m happy for the guys and proud of them, because they just kept coming, and that’s what we have to do.

“That could easily have gone a different way, how we felt about it, because that emotion the last 10 minutes, I mean, you can’t get much more exciting hockey than that, right? It’s up down, up down.”

The Hurricanes became the first team in 82 years to win after trailing by multiple goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation in the Cup Final. The Montreal Canadiens came back from a 4-1 third-period deficit to win 5-4 in overtime against the Chicago Black Hawks in Game 4 in 1944.

“We just have all the belief in our group to come back and to stay persistent,” Jankowski said. “Yeah, that’s a huge one for us. We’re excited to get to Vegas.”