The Carolina Hurricanes forced Game 6 against the New York Rangers with a 4-1 win Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Canes scored four goals in the third period en route to the win with Jordan Staal, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jordan Martinook and Martin Necas all lighting the lamp.
Frederik Andersen stopped 20 shots in the win.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Kuznetsov, Staal, Martinook, Necas and Dmitry Orlov spoke with the media in New York. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On Jordan Staal: You and I talk about him all year and have for many years. But I just love that people get to see, in that game, what he can do and what he means to us because that was vintage Jordan Staal there. Pretty impressive performance by him.
On the third period success: I think finally some things are... I don't know if it's breaks or whatever you want to call it, it went our way. Obviously there's a high level of desperation with our game and in the third we had to be. But O just think we got a few bounces finally.
On the belief in the team building with each win: It's been there all along. I mean, I said it earlier. I've liked the way we've played in this series every game. Obviously there's things in it that you'd like to be better at but just the mindset and how we approach games and how hard we've worked. We talk about leadership and probably overdo it in how much we talk about it, but it's just so important to the mindset of the group and that comes from the guys in there.
On the importance of experienced leadership: When you look at the additions we made, that was a big factor. Guys that have been there before and understand what it takes. They understand the ups and downs and understand how hard it is to win and how hard it is to win a playoff game, let alone the whole thing. We added a little bit of that and I think it's really helped.
On Evgeny Kuznetsov: He's got that ability, right? Just silky smooth and has a great offensive feel, there's no doubt about it.
On the demeanor in the locker room after the shorthanded goal: I'm not in the rooms between the periods, really, but I just felt like it was just business as usual. We just have to win a period. Didn't really matter how we were going to get it done. That's the kind of sense I got when I went in to talk to the guys. There was no panic. They understood the situation. It wasn't like we were dead, we did pretty well and we were one shot away. That was the way they approached it.
On Frederik Andersen: It wasn't a ton of work, which is good on our part that we didn't allow that, but obviously a couple of big saves at crucial times. That's what you need from goaltending. To keep you in the game. They go up by two, that's going to be tough. He kept us in there.
On blueline: That's the backbone of our group. They're just elite players and I think that's how we've built this team. From the backend out. You saw it tonight. I thought they were exceptional.
On forcing another game at home: Look, we're in survival mode. We all understand that. I'm just proud of the group. They gave us another day. They bought us another day and really that's how we've approached this and how we have to. For our fans it's great. They deserve to see another game and that's what we gave them.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
On the third period: That was phenomenal. We were trying hard for two periods and the puck doesn't go in. [Shesterkin] was playing well. I'm just so grateful to be a part of that. It's one of those, going into the third period and you realize it could be the last period of the season and you don't want to have that feeling. I'm so grateful that we were able to come back and win the game.
On Jordan Staal getting the scoring started: He called it before the game actually that he was going to score today. He said he was going to do the 'Bird' but he didn't. He's too nice.
On if he feels pressure has shifted to Rangers: I don't know. It's not on me to decide who has pressure or not. It's two beautiful teams that are competing against each other. It's a dog fight now. What we're trying to do over the last four days is living day-by-day and do what's best available with the opportunity. I'm so grateful to have these moments.
On the importance of experience: I don't know. I just felt a little bit uncomfortable before the third period. My thoughts that this could be the last period, but I'm so grateful that we were able to comeback. It's good for the hockey, good for everybody to see these two beautiful teams compete against each other.
On Igor Shesterkin: At this stage, there are no bad goalies at all and I feel like in the whole league there are no bad goalies. But Igor, he's a beautiful person and a beautiful goalie. The crowd feeds off of him and he's one of the main focuses for us that we have to go through.
On the team's mentality: I feel like we never give up. It's one of those where you can go down and look eye to eye with your teammates. It was a good third period and I learned a lot about this group.
Jordan Staal
On talking to Kuznetsov about scoring before the game: There's been a lot of guys telling me I was going to score for a while, so I've been telling them after the game, it's better late than never. Obviously Kuzy's been great for us. We were chatting about scoring goals as usual, but a big goal from him. He's been good for us and scoring big goals. It was nice.
On heading into the third period trailing: We didn't hate our game and we were rolling into a power play. We trusted our game and it ended up paying off and we live to fight another day. Nobody was hanging any heads. We knew we had to have our best period and we did. We're going to have another huge challenge heading home in a few days here. We're fighting for our lives and the boys showed up.
On the importance of leadership and experience: It doesn't hurt. Playoffs is tough. It's hard mentally. There's ups and downs and times where you have to battle through stuff that's just not going your way and you have to just stay with the consistency of your game. We've done that really well. Obviously better lately than we had at the start, but we still played some good hockey throughout this whole series and we're starting to get some bounces. We're fighting for the next day and it's been fun to see the boys just giving it all they've got.
On pressure: There's a lot of pressure on both sides, obviously. When you're fighting for your life, it could be one mistake and that could be the difference and the end of your season. We were calm with our fingernails and obviously Game 5s are tough, especially in their home. You don't want to go back on the road and you want to close it out, but we gave it all we got and we got a win. And we're going to have to do it all over again. We're fighting for our lives and that's really about it.
On the belief in the room: Wins help. Obviously we really did believe we had some good games going from the start, but we had some mistakes obviously, especially with the special teams and that's gotten a lot better and we've learned from those mistakes. I think our game 5v5 has been really good. Been solid and it's kind of coming together more and more. Wins are nice, but we just have to keep fighting. That's it.
Jordan Martinook
On Jordan Staal: Just an incredible play by him. I felt like the whole game he was leading us. When you got a guy that does it the same way every night and just plays the same style and is in their face hard, everybody wants to jump on it. That's what your captain does. He was incredible tonight. Everybody jumped on his back and he led us for sure.
On the boost from a successful penalty kill: Obviously we want to kill penalties off, but I feel like the bench after you kill one off, especially when you're blocking shots and guys are selling out, it definitely gives the bench a boost. You look at that next shift after a penalty kill, it usually creates momentum and a lot of the playoffs is momentum swings and you want to just try and ride your swings as long as you can. Kills have been really big for us the last two.
On Jack Drury: His blocks on the penalty kill, those were humongous. I told him, 'I'll take you to the bench' and he didn't want no part of that. He had a great game tonight. I was like don't touch it, don't touch it, but he got a little piece of [my goal] and calmed it down, so I guess I have to thank him.
On the feelings after the game: You're just happy. We're fighting for our lives every game and we gave ourselves the chance to play another game and gave ourselves a chance to hopefully come back here. I think everybody's just pumped for each other and are just enjoying the moment and enjoying the boost that a win gives you. We have to regroup and get ready to give it everything we've got for Game 6.
On Frederik Andersen: Freddie was big, made some big saves. I felt like for the third period, we did a really good job in front of him. It didn't feel like we were giving up a ton and everybody was clearing the net and getting back hard. I feel like when our team is playing well, it's about team defense and I think everybody knows that. What I said to the guys after, I felt like we held them back pretty good. Watch the third, learn some things and get ready to go again.
Dmitry Orlov
On the play to Jordan Staal for his goal: It's not about my pass. Overall, Jordo had time and he just went to the net and made a nice goal. On my decision, I just saw that I had some time. My guy got away from me and they got a bad change I would say and we converted. The third period, we played pretty good and that's why we won today.
On the depth scoring: Right now, we need everybody and it doesn't matter who's going to step up in the big moments. If we play as a team, that's most important. So we got two wins in a row and right now it's good. We'll get rest a little bit and refocus for another game because it's big for us like the other two. We'll have to focus on the one game coming up and hopefully it' going to be good.
On the mindset heading into the third period with the season on the line: Just to keep focused on the game and period. Not think about that. For sure, it's going to be coming in your mind, but when you're out there, you're not thinking. You're just trying to play as hard as you can and helping each other. Just believing in yourself.
On heading back home for Game 6: It's great. We're going to play at home with our crowd. They're going to be pumped us, but for us we don't have to change anything. Just play every shift like it's the last shift and just leave everything there to make sure we do not feel bad and sorry for ourselves.
On his decision to not dump the puck in but rather pass to Staal: Sometimes you have to play hockey and use your instincts. Not just simplify sometimes. I made a good read and he scored. It was a huge goal for us.
On the team's ability to comeback: We've done it all season. When you're under pressure, it shows if the team is good or not and we showed today. But we just need to rest and get ready for next game. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be even harder. Both teams are going to play hard.
Martin Necas
On the third period: That was huge. Starting with our cap, Jordo, he made a great play on the goal. Started with Orly. Just a smart play. We believe. We believe in this locker room, Game-by-game. We don't think about winning two in a row, three in a row, four in a row. It's about the next one and we're happy to go back to PNC.
On the 5v5 scoring: It's quite embarrassing to be minus one in the series on the power play. That can't happen, but we showed how strong we are here in this locker room and how much we believe. We're really willing to do the stuff. That was huge.
On Jordan Staal: He leads the way. He's a warrior. He's a defensive machine and he's just so strong and he showed it right there.
On the mindset heading into the third period: Hopefully get one on the power play at the beginning and then go. But it didn't happen. We had some good looks there, but then Jordo scored, then Kuzy and we were just rolling.
On slowing down the Artemi Panarin line: Just play with the puck more than them, When you give them the puck, it's not easy to cover them, but once you keep the puck on your sticks, they're not as good defensively, so that's kind of how you have to play against them and that's what we've been doing.
On Staal keeping it loose at morning skate: You don't see that very often from him, so it's good. He's a leader, scored a huge goal there for us tonight, but we're not satisfied. We're coming back home to PNC and our rink's going to be buzzing and we're excited for that.
On the importance of experience: I feel like it's a big part. I felt like we got down 3-0 so quick, we didn't even know what happened and then we started playing our game. We've been good. Freddie made some big saves there. They had a couple of rush chances there in the second. We've got experience in this locker room and it's good.