By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes have spent months regrouping quickly after losses and they have proven unshaken by the challenge of playing in hostile arenas or in next-goal-wins extra time.
Those responses in the most pressure-packed of scenarios helps explain why they’re back to even in the Stanley Cup Final after losing the opener to the Vegas Golden Knights heading into Saturday’s Game 3 on the road. If anything, they seem to be thriving on it with a perfect record in overtime and road games in the postseason, along with avoiding consecutive losses since mid-January.
“It’s a special time of year, and it’s a really cool opportunity and experience we all get to have,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said Friday. “And if we weren’t enjoying it as well, it would be a big shame, right?”
The Hurricanes improved to 13-2 in the playoffs in dramatic fashion Thursday, rallying from a two-goal deficit in the third period to win 4-3 in overtime and split the first two games of the best-of-seven series. The thriller ended with Seth Jarvis hammering a one-timer past Carter Hart from the left side with the man advantage, a moment the Hurricanes are hoping is a breakthrough moment for their regular-season goals leader and the power-play unit after both have sputtered in the postseason.
The story is just as much about the Hurricanes’ ability to navigate through turbulence. The win marked marked Carolina’s 13th straight win when coming off a loss, a run that started after consecutive losses at Detroit and St. Louis on Jan. 12 and 13.
“It goes to talking about belief,” forward Andrei Svechnikov said. “I think we believe in the group. We’re confident in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. We believe in our system, and we just try to go there and play our game, and that’s what we’ve kind of been doing.”
Carolina’s first postseason loss came in the Eastern Conference Final against Montreal, with the Hurricanes emerging from an 11-day between-rounds break — the longest in the playoffs in more than a century — and giving up four first-period goals in a 6-2 loss.
They responded with four straight wins, twice in overtime and then two in romps by a combined 10-1 margin to close out the series.
Coming off a 5-4 loss in Game 1 to Vegas, Carolina responded again, though it looked grim facing a 2-0 deficit and being outplayed in a second period that coach Rod Brind’Amour admitted was “kind of a dud.”
The Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals in a span of roughly five minutes in the third period, the last being captain Jordan Staal’s deflection from the top of the crease on the power play.
Then Carolina shook off Vegas scoring an OT-forcing goal with 1:21 left in regulation to cash in for a second straight time on a power play with Jarvis banging in the winner. That came on a well-executed sequence with Shayne Gostisbehere — who assisted on Staal’s score — working up top.
Gostisbehere sold that he might shoot the puck enough to heighten the attention of the Golden Knights’ defenders packed in the middle, while Nikolaj Ehlers even hopped in the slot as though jumping over a shot. That kept Hart locked an extra beat in the middle as Gostisbehere instead passed to Jarvis on the left side for the winner.
Before those scores, Carolina’s power play stood at 7 for 60 (11.7%) in the playoffs after ranking fourth in the regular season (24.9%).
Now Carolina is 6-0 in overtime in the playoffs, including in all four Game 2 home wins, and a 6-0 on the road.
“For almost 50 minutes there (emotions are) kind of low, and then kind of even, then really high, then low again, and then high,” Gostisbehere said. “It’s a roller coaster, for sure. But it’s just managing them. We’re still human beings. We’re going to be nervous out there and have emotions, but the more you do it, the more you do anything, you get used to it.”