Analysis: Knights survive Hurricanes in all-time wild Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final

Collapse halted. Crisis averted. Lead preserved.

The Vegas Golden Knights narrowly escaped committing the biggest blown lead in Stanley Cup Final history Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in double overtime to go up 2-1 overall in the best-of-seven series.

Vegas top defenseman Shea Theodore blasted a puck off the boards in the game’s 85^th minute that hit off multiple Carolina players including goalie Brandon Bussi and trickled into the net.  

Theodore’s Golden Knight teammates mobbed him along the boards on the ice for a couple minutes while several Hurricanes stood still in shock.

“It’s exactly the way I planned,” Theodore deadpanned about his game-winning shot in the postgame news conference. “Just at that point, you obviously want to be a guy who scores but you have to play smart…Just get the puck to the net and good things happen.”

Both teams can attest to the success of that philosophy from different points of Game 3 considering it will go down as one of the wildest, most historic games in Stanley Cup Final history.

Carolina had erased a 4-0 deficit in the third period but couldn’t get the final goal to complete their comeback. The Hurricanes had their chances in the first overtime but never quite cracked Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart, who bounced back from a disastrous final frame of regulation that included at one point giving up three goals on three straight shots on net.

Carolina’s first three scores — from Jordan Martinook, Taylor Hall and Jordan Staal — were all scored in 37 seconds, the shortest time a trio of goals have ever found the net in Stanley Cup Final history.

Andrei Svechnikov forced overtime with less than two minutes remaining with a net-front goal while the Hurricanes were playing 6-on-4 — pulling their goalie out of desperation during a late power play. 

“I’ve experienced so many games in the playoffs but I haven’t experienced any like this,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “We couldn’t do anything wrong in the second period. We couldn’t do anything right in the third period. It just comes and goes.”

The Golden Knights set a couple records of their own during that second period.

Namely, Mitch Marner put up a couple records of his own during a surge that gave the Golden Knights what felt like an insurmountable advantage.

Already the star of Vegas’ third run to the Stanley Cup Final in nine years, Marner indisputably elevated his status to legendary Saturday night.

The Golden Knights may now deny it but at least some frustration had set in through a period-and-a-half of Game 3 after challenges waved off back-to-back second-period goals from team leaders Mark Stone and Jack Eichel.  They needed someone to lift their spirits in what somehow remained a scoreless game.

Marner dug the Golden Knights out of their momentary low place into an ultimate high with  four points in the next six-and-a-half minutes. It marked the first four-point period in a Stanley Cup Final game for a player since 1919 when Frank Foyston pulled off the feat for the Seattle Metropolitans.

Marner only had a secondary assist on the first goal, setting into motion a power-play score from Tomas Hertl in the slot, but then proceeded to score three straight times in the next 6:10 on the clock.

“I got put in good areas by my teammates and I was lucky enough to finish them off,” Marner said.

He recorded the fastest natural stat trick in Stanley Cup Final history, beating Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s record set by the Montreal Canadiens in 1957. Another Maurice-led Canadiens side had the previous record for fastest three goals in the championship series that Carolina broke, having done it in 56 seconds in 1954.

“It snowballed on us in that second period,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I knew we were going to get going, get back in the game but you just can’t have those mistakes.”

Marner had a golden chance to add to his statistic line four minutes into the second period when Carolina’s Sebastian Aho slashed him on a shorthanded breakaway to get rewarded a penalty shot.

But Bussi stood up to Marner’s deke and blocked his backhand. Despite holding a 4-0 lead at the time, Tortorella admitted to feeling a sense that the Golden Knights needed Marner’s goal to go in at the time.

Marner meanwhile said he was so exhausted that he didn’t even realize Bussi had replaced starter Frederik Andersen — whom Brind’Amour benched after four goals on 16 shots in two periods — and adjusted his penalty-shot strategy mid-approach.

“I liked my move,” he said. “It just missed by a hair I thought. Sometimes that happens.”

Marner’s humility didn’t only show through postgame; he acted the same on the ice. Despite hats raining down on him after his hat trick, his reaction was muted.

Marner’s biggest outburst came on his second goal when he beat Andersen with a similar move to the one that later failed against Bussi. Defenseman Brayden McNabb assisted on the play, finding Marner after picking off a Carolina clearing attempt.

Marner wrapped around the net and pointed at McNabb as the siren went off.

McNabb’s mere presence inspired the Golden Knights in Game 3 after he was rushed to the hospital in the first period of a Game 2 overtime loss on the road following taking an 87 mile per hour slapshot to the face.

The veteran “Original Misfit” didn’t travel back to Las Vegas with the team and sported a stitched- and sutured-nose with a full-cage mask covering in Game 3 but managed to play just short of 36 minutes — second-most on the team behind Theodore’s 39 minutes.

“The stuff he went through from last game and everything, it’s incredible for him to bounce back like that and come in today ready to play,” Theodore said of McNabb. “I thought he played unbelievable given all the circumstances. It’s never easy wearing a cage like he did. It changes your vision and all that. It’s just so impressive.”

McNabb also got the primary assist on Theodore’s game-winner, giving him multi-point games in each of the two Stanley Cup Final contests he’s been able to complete this year.

“I heard the players yell, 'Warrior,'” Tortorella said of McNabb. “He’s more than that. I’m blown away how he goes about his business.”

Theodore said that he honestly didn’t remember much about his final goal because of his exhaustion, but he knew McNabb tossed him over the puck. He’ll someday appreciate the prolonged celebration he had with his teammates but, in the moment, he was just happy the game was over.

A well-timed two-day break is now scheduled before the teams reconvene at 5 p.m. Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena for Game 4. All three games so far have been crazy with squandered multi-goal leads in each one.

But few in NHL history have matched up with all that occurred in Game 3.     

“I think, at the end of the day, we’re a resilient group,” Theodore said. “We stay calm. We stay collected. Obviously the third period, we have to take a better hold of that but I like the way we reset in overtime — especially the second overtime.”