Updated 07.05 | Published 07.01
NEW YORK. First, Mitch Marner scored the fastest hat trick in Finals history, then Carolina became the first team ever in the Stanley Cup Playoffs to come back from a 0-4 deficit in the third period – and then Vegas guard Shea Theodore settled it with a lucky rebound off the board in the second overtime period.
Yes, tonight’s Stanley Cup final qualifies as the most spectacular in several decades.
– Absolutely crazy, says Marner after the 5-4 victory.
The ongoing Stanley Cup Final between Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights is shaping up to be a sensational classic.
– If it continues like this, it will be the best ever, as former back star PK Subban expressed it in the TV channel ABC’s expert panel expressed it last night.
Unusually, however, the night’s third round in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas started as a decently conventional final match and after a tight first period without many situations worth remembering, the result was 0-0.
But then all the dams burst – with a crash.
First, Vegas had two straight goals disallowed, quite correctly. After that, Tomas Hertl still scored a regular power play goal – and then Mitch Marner suddenly completed a real hat trick in the space of six minutes and ten seconds. In doing so, he broke the all-time finals record, set when Montreal legend Maurice Richards scored three goals in the space of six minutes and 21 seconds in the 1957 final.
– Yes, it was completely crazy, says Marner in a television interview immediately after the end of the match.
– But you have to fight for everything. Nothing is easy in these matches.
Just over four minutes into the final period, the former Toronto star had the chance to further increase the goal yield with a penalty, but by then the visitors had replaced the slightly shaky Frederik Andersen with a much more energetic Brando Bussi, so that puck was stopped – and with that Carolina woke up. Like a bear chased out of its winter den prematurely. In the space of 39 seconds, they scored three goals, breaking a new record with that shocking streak. Never before has a finals team produced three goals so quickly. But Andrei Svechnikov made sure to top that feat by equalizing with less than two minutes remaining. That meant the Hurricanes are now the only team in Stanley Cup Playoff history to come back from a 0-4 deficit in the third period.
– We were of course not happy with that period, that shouldn’t happen, says defender Shea Theodore.
– But we still stuck together, told each other that we could still fix this and continued to play as we should. I am proud of the group.
The extra time that followed turned into a two-overtime night-mangle, but five and a half minutes into the second overtime period, the drama finally came to an end – in typical snowy sudden death fashion.
Just Theodore sent a shot into the backboard and the puck bounced out and hit the back of the excellent Bussi’s leg and went in.
– There were a lot of bounces tonight and it’s important to play simply in those situations, he smiles.
The victory means that Vegas has acquired a 2-1 advantage in the wild spectacle, which now takes a two-day break and continues with a new match in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
William Karlsson, one of the two Swedes in the Golden Knights, contributed an assist to one of Mitch Marner’s three goals.
The text is updated
