RALEIGH, N.C. — Ten minutes into the third period, in the words of Rod Brind’Amour, nothing was going on.
The Vegas Golden Knights’ stubborn, suffocating play in their own zone made it nearly impossible to get bodies and pucks to the net. Vegas looked as though it had removed the soul from the usually fast, feisty and relentless Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canes looked beyond frustrated. Lost as can be.
Somebody needed to make a play. Somebody needed to step up. Trailing 2-0 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, they were in dire straits of falling behind 2-0 in the series.
So, as he has done so often in these playoffs, the Hurricanes’ smallest player delivered.
Like a terrier on a bone, Logan Stankoven, giving up several inches and plenty of pounds to Rasmus Andersson, hounded the Vegas defenseman below the goal line, won a puck battle he had no business winning, ripped the puck free and turned a harmless possession into a momentum-changing goal that ignited Carolina’s third-period comeback and perhaps saved the Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup hopes.
When asked how the heck the 5-foot-8 Stankoven keeps making plays like that, how he keeps winning these puck battles against much bigger men, how he continues to score huge goals — a team-leading 10 in all — this postseason, the Hurricanes’ coach took his right hand and tapped the left side of his chest in dramatic fashion.
“Can’t measure that stuff,” Brind’Amour said after Carolina’s 4-3 overtime win over the Golden Knights evened this Stanley Cup Final at 1-1. “He just keeps doing it … night in and night out and determination — all that stuff, it’s pretty amazing.”
Suddenly, Vegas’ lead was cut in half. Just over two minutes later, the game was tied after another couple of individual efforts, first by William Carrier managing to stay onside while winning a puck battle with Jeremy Lauzon, falling to the ice and still somehow sliding the puck over to fellow fourth-liner Mark Jankowski.
“I think the average fan wouldn’t really realize how exceptional a play that was,” captain Jordan Staal said. “That guy is so strong, it’s just like you can’t take him down, and he wasn’t giving up on that play, and found a way to kick it up and make a play and make a pass. Just an incredible individual effort, and that’s what we needed. We needed something like that, and that was a massive play for us.”
During the last 10 minutes of the third period and the first four minutes of overtime, the number of people who stepped up for Carolina was incredible.
There was Stankoven on his goal. There was Carrier’s gritty effort en route to the tying goal. There was Frederik Andersen’s sprawling paddle save to rob Ivan Barbashev’s wraparound attempt. There was Shayne Gostisbehere helping what had been a brutal power play finally get going with two assists, one off a shot tipped by Staal for a go-ahead goal, then by selling the shot and making the pass over to Seth Jarvis for his winner in overtime — after Jarvis called himself out for his dormant offensive output after Game 1.
There was Staal’s seven hits and 14 faceoff wins on 20 attempts, and Brind’Amour’s subtle move of Jarvis off the top line and onto Staal’s line, while moving Jordan Martinook up to the top line with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
Brind’Amour said he didn’t know if it worked or didn’t work, but something had to be done, and he definitely got his team’s attention.
But what turned this game around was Stankoven’s refusal to quit on a puck — the kind of greasy, hard-earned goal that can swing an entire series.
“I think it was just great to get the crowd back into it,” he said. “I think when you’re down and out, I think you just have to rely on hard work and being able to hound pucks. I just tried to hop off the draw there and take it to the net. Kind of got a bit lucky. It ramped up (Carter Hart’s) stick. I saw it go in and I was pretty excited.”
So was the crowd, many of whom went “tarps off” by removing their shirts midway through the third period.
Jarvis said it worked.
“That’s the best thing about them; they’re crazy,” Jarvis said of Carolina fans. “It’s an amazing atmosphere to play in, and to have people like that. It’s not warm in there, so to take tarps off and kind of get the crowd going and get the energy going, that’s kind of what kick-started our whole little press there in the third.”
Give the Hurricanes credit for sticking with it, even after Mark Stone scored the tying goal with an extra attacker on to force overtime. But Staal drew a penalty from Tomas Hertl, the Game 1 hero for Vegas, and Jarvis came through in the clutch to help Carolina improve to 6-0 in overtime in the playoffs.
“That emotion the last 10 minutes, I mean, you can’t get much more exciting hockey than that, right?” Brind’Amour said. “Like, it’s up, down, up, down, so it was good that we were able to just kind of park everything and go play.”
The Canes were looking for a spark. Several players stepped up.
But it started with the diminutive Stankoven, and now we have a series. After all, teams with a 2-0 series lead are 50-5 all-time in the Stanley Cup Final, including 10-2 when starting on the road. And Carolina is 2-10 all-time when down 2-0.
“I had to play against him when he was in Dallas,” Carrier said of Stankoven. “So I know exactly how it is. He’s feisty out there. He’s maybe not the biggest guy, but I would hate to play against him.”
As Jankowski said, “He’s not the biggest guy, but he has the biggest heart.”