Wild overtime win! Hear from Brind'Amour, Blake, Walker, and Martinook on a bizarre, back-and-forth thriller that saw the Canes triumph.
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-5 in overtime Wednesday night at Lenovo Center.
It was a wild back and forth affair between the top two Metro teams, but in the end, the Canes came out ahead thanks to a Sean Walker blast.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Jackson Blake, Walker and Jordan Martinook spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the game: I thought we were great pretty much all night, it was just a weird game. Like, going into the third it was 2-1 and then it ended up 6-5. You would never have thought that the way the game was going. We created a ton of good opportunities tonight, just didn't cash in. Then a couple of weird bounces, fanning on shots to give up breakaways and we found ourselves behind somehow. But give the guys credit, we just kept playing. It didn't really affect us one bit and it really could have easily.
On the penalty kill: [The 5-on-3] was tough. You take a bad penalty and then that opens up something to happen like that and now we were at 5-on-3 for a long time. That's tough to kill, but I did think for the most part we did a good job.
On the second line: Every time they touched the ice, it felt like they were gonna score. They've been great. Really got two power play goals, it was at the end so it doesn't count, but it was a good entry and a good individual effort there. Then kind of the same thing on the other one. They've really stepped up their game. It's been nice to watch.
On being able to compete in any style of game: Whatever the game is, we're capable of doing with the character and makeup of our group. It wasn't really that way, but then all of a sudden, it became next shot was gonna win it, which was weird too because there was a lot of good saves in the game. I liked the way we played for the most part in the game.
On Logan Stankoven: This whole year, every night you think, 'Man, he should have been on the scoresheet or scored." That's the positive. You know he's not gonna stop working and if you do that, you're gonna set yourself up for success. He's just scratching the surface with what's coming.
On the depth of the bench: I know we have a lot of good options there. Walks is real talented. He kind of does a bit of everything for us.
On Nikolaj Ehlers: You need that kind of player at that time of the game. He's kind of trying to go through everyone, but that's what needs to happen at that time of the game. It's nice to have those kinds of guys and that's been a huge addition, for sure.
Jackson Blake
On the game: I really liked our game tonight Everyone stepped up and everyone played a huge role tonight. Freddie especially too. But gotta give them credit. They're a great team over there and they have a lot of great players and it's no wonder that they're having success because they're hard to play against. There were a couple of mistakes, including me there, that I think we can avoid, but other than that, I liked the game.
On his line: Those two are unbelievably good players and they came up big for us tonight. I love playing with those guys because you know what you can get from them. It's awesome. We've had chances, but tonight fortunately they went in.
On special teams: That's what it comes down to. Roddy says it all the time. In the playoffs, special teams is what wins games for the most part. Unfortunate that we gave them one on the power play, but I loved our power play tonight and Marty with an absolutely huge goal that really got the boys going. The biggest reason we won tonight I think was because of him scoring that goal.
On the mentality of the team: We're very resilient. It doesn't matter what the score is. We're gonna compete and we're going to battle and we're going to play the way Rod wants us to play and be predictable to each other. I don't care if it's 5-1 or 1-5, the boys are going to be giving it their all and we're gonna try to play the way we need to play.
On his unit getting the chance to start a power play: We have a great power play and I think both units are good, especially that first unit. But I think it's up to us as the second unit to just let Roddy know that we can be out there too. Obviously they're probably one of the best power play units. They're snapping it around and scoring goals and it's awesome to see. Whatever we get, we're going to go out there with the mindset that we're still trying to score and it doesn't matter.
On his goal: I saw the defenseman lay down and Hallsy did a great job of skating it across and kind of giving me some space. I saw him lay down and I had tried to go far side earlier in the period on my backhand and that didn't work out, so I just tried to go five-hole and a little lucky that it went in. Pretty happy with that, but great job by Fly and Hallsy on that one, for sure.
Sean Walker
On the game: It was great to score the overtime winner. We had the lead a couple times, so it would have been nice to shut it down and see us play with the lead, but overall, I think our team showed a lot of resiliency tonight. Up, down, whatever it was, we played the same way: hard. Luckily we got the result we wanted.
On the penalty kill: All year, we've kind of been sticking with the same page of being really aggressive. Sometimes bounces are gonna happen. So we don't want to panic or change anything. 5-on-3s are tough, but overall we're doing a good job and just need to stick with it.
On finding space in overtime: Honestly, I'm just trying to create a little space for them. I want Aho and Jarv to have the puck and tried to set a little pick and then honestly I kind of blacked out. Opened up and he made a nice pass and I figured it was a good time to shoot. Glad it went in.
On if Aho needs to start looking for him more: I'm sure he'll only say that I need to pass him the puck more. We'll leave it at that.
On the bench mentality after going down: We've done a good job staying positive. I think there's been a lot of times this year where we've maybe gone down a goal, but we've found ways to battle back and either tie the game or get two quick to take the lead again. Again, we're a resilient group and we got the win tonight.
Jordan Martinook
On the game: Resiliency, I say, would be the word of the night. Obviously we get the lead, they tie it up. We get the lead, they tie it up and then they score two and you're sitting on the bench thinking, 'What just happened?' But we just stuck with it and obviously on that tying goal, Fly coming through the neutral zone deking out four or five guys and kind of set that whole shift up. Just guys stepping up. The Blake and Stank and Hallsy line was phenomenal and you need that in games like that. It was a good game. Felt like an important game and it was. Happy to get the two points.
On the penalty kill: When you go down 5-on-3, it's tough to kill that one off, but I think we battled hard. They have dynamic players over there. But I felt like we were on it pretty good. When you go down 5-on-3, it's tough, but overall, we were pretty good out there.
On his shorthanded goal: It was kind of rolling when I got it and so I just settled it and shot. I shoot on him every summer, so that's a spot of interest for me.
On Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake: They've been great all year. I feel like it's kind of deja vu talking about those two because two or three years ago I was talking about Jarv the same way. Obviously it's awesome to see young guys take the reins and take over games. To sit on the bench and watch what those guys are doing tonight, it was just every time the puck was on their stick, it was dynamic plays and then they kind of have Hallsy riding shotgun with them. Special line. They've been going good for a while here and we're gonna need that moving forward.
On the goals from the blueline: For Walks? Yeah. [And Miller] Well, I don't know what that one hit in front, but we might have to check that out. I'm just kidding. Those were huge plays from those guys. Walks getting that OT winner, you love seeing that for guys that maybe don't get them all the time. Those ones feel a little better sometimes. There are things we can shore up, but we came out on top.
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