After 40 minutes, the Carolina Hurricanes looked to be cruising to a Saturday afternoon win.
And then the third period happened.
Carolina blew a three-goal lead in the final frame, surrendering five straight as they lost 5-3 to the Winnipeg Jets in their return to PNC Arena.
"Every goal, there was a reason for it," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "You play a good team and they're going to make you pay."
The game came in three phases.
For half of the game, it looked like a defensive slog-fest with neither team being able to get much of anything going.
Then towards the end of the second period, Carolina took over, with an offensive outpouring from their top players.
Martin Necas kicked the scoring off with great individual effort as he took his time to allow a 2-on-1 to develop before ripping a shot past Connor Hellebuyck.
The Finns then connected on the second goal with Sebastian Aho outmuscling a Winnipeg defender up ice and setting up Teuvo Teravainen in the slot.
Then Andrei Svechnikov found Aho with a perfect pass to the backdoor on a late power play.
Carolina was cooking, but it unraveled as quickly as it came.
Less than two minutes into the third period, Kyle Connor put a shot on net from the top of the zone that clearly Pyotr Kochetkov wasn't ready for.
Then a little over a minute later, Nino Niederreiter crashed to the net and was left all alone as he roofed one past Kochetkov.
"The first goal shouldn't have gone in, but it does," Brind'Amour said. "Then the second one, Pesce was coming back to the bench for a stick because he lost his and then his guy goes to the net."
Brind'Amour elected to call his timeout to try and refocus his group, but a bad o-zone penalty by Michael Bunting put the Canes right back on their heels and eventually Mark Scheifele danced around everyone before depositing the puck into the back of the net.
Within six minutes, everything Carolina had built was gone.
"It was definitely a meltdown in the third period," said Jordan Staal. "A bit embarrassing... really embarrassing. We have to give ourselves a squeeze and man up and start playing hockey. We kind of just sat back and hoped it wasn't going to go the way it was going and it did. It was ugly. Really just one ugly period and they capitalized on every single chance they had."
The Hurricanes started to rein it back in, but a terrible decision by Kochetkov late in the third period put the final nail in the coffin.
Winnipeg tried to spring Vladislav Namestnikov on a breakaway, but it seemed like Jalen Chatfield was going to be able to beat him out for the puck.
However, Kochetkov came flying out of his crease to try and break the play up, but his poke check left him high and dry and Sean Monahan was able to put the eventual game-winner into the yawning cage.
"He had a tough night, let's be honest," Brind'Amour said. "He's been so good and we love his aggressiveness because that's part of his routine, but it was maybe not the time to do that."
Niederreiter would seal the game with an empty netter.
The Canes had the game right where they wanted and perhaps could have even salvaged a point, but they collapsed fully in the third period and were left empty handed.
"There's no such thing as an easy game" Brind'Amour said. "We had a tough month. We just played a boatload of really top-end teams and managed to do pretty well, but now you look to turn the page and have a whole bunch more coming. It's not a wakeup call. We know how we messed this game up, it just can't happen."
Carolina will have to sit on the tough loss for a while as they aren't back in action again until Thursday as they host the Montreal Canadiens.