Seth Jarvis’s overtime heroics and Logan Stankoven’s late-game spark salvaged a gritty comeback victory, evening the series as Rod Brind’Amour’s squad found life in a postseason thriller.
The Carolina Hurricanes were in need of a hero Thursday night in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and they got a few.
Logan Stankoven sparked the comeback and then it was Seth Jarvis with the OT winner to propel Carolina to a 4-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights to tie up the series 1-1.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Jarvis, Jordan Staal, Mark Jankowski, Sebastian Aho and Stankoven spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On special teams: Special teams is always such a factor in the playoffs, especially this time of year when teams kind of saw each other off a little bit. You need to have those going and tonight, obviously, it was the difference.
On Shayne Gostisbehere's power play passes: Listen, [the power play] hadn't scored much in the playoffs. It's been a bit of a concern. It needed to execute and you need to execute with what they're giving you. That's his job up there as the quarterback, to make those reads and he made the right reads.
On the sequence of saves Frederik Andersen made and Vegas' decision to challenge the no-goal call: I don't know. That was a crazy time, obviously. I don't even know what to tell you. What I do know, and it happened to us in I guess the first game, when it's called a goal or no goal on the ice, it better be 100% to challenge it. That's the rule we go by. So, they called no goal on the ice, so that's kind of how I think it worked out. I don't know. I don't know what the explanation is. It looked like he had it covered, and then all of a sudden it was in the net. I don't know. I haven't really looked at it. I was just happy that it went our way.
On what allowed the team to get the job done: Well, we had a great first, again, and didn't get rewarded for it. If you follow our team enough, that's happened a lot. So I think we're just used to it not going our way when it should. We should have had a few more, shouldn't have been down one after that period. But it's just kind or normal. I don't know what to tell you. Then we were kind of dead in the second because we took some penalties that got us on our heels and then the first 10 minutes of the third wasn't great. But somebody had to step up. Somebody had to make a play and that's what happened. Stanks made a play and all of a sudden you get the building going again and then somebody else made a play. Will Carrier makes an unbelievable play and then Janks, great shot. Now all of a sudden the game starts over and we can go from there. Long answer to the question, but somebody had to step up and make a play.
On the team sticking with it and evening up the series: It's huge. Now we can start over. It's very similar to the last series the way it's playing out. It's uncanny. But you get a new shot of life is what it feels like. That's what we definitely needed. I'm happy for the guys and proud of them because they just kept coming and that's what we have to do.
On the team's overtime success: I don't know. I've been asked that before about momentum and things like that and I don't buy into any of that, but I do think that it was just like business as usual. That's a good sign. We've been here before. That could have easily gone a different way with how we felt about it because that emotion in the last 10 minutes, you can't get more exciting hockey than that, right? Up and down and up and down. It was good that we were just able to park everything and go play.
On if he was surprised that Vegas challenged the no-goal: I don't know. That's a question for them. I'm not sure how they go about their thought process. They'd obviously killed all the penalties. That's a big one. I'm sure you asked him. I don't know what he said.
On how a guy like Logan Stankoven gets it done as often as he does despite his size: *Pats chest* Can't measure that stuff. He just keeps doing it. Night in, night out. Determination. All that stuff. It's pretty amazing.
On Mark Jankowski's goal scoring ability: We've noticed it since he showed up. If you go back to when he arrived on the scene, with the limited amount of ice time he get... if you think about it compared to most guys... if you look at his opportunities, they end up in the net and obviously I get to watch him in practice, this guy has a good feel for the offensive game and obviously he's a jack of all trades for us and has been a great find.
On the line swaps: Well we'd done it before, I forget which series, feels like forever ago, but we were in a little funk there at that stage of the game where it was just nothing really going and we needed to do something just to change it up. I don't know if it worked, not worked, but you have to do something at that point.
On the third period adjustments: You're constantly doing that, for sure. There was definitely a few things we discussed that we had to do differently and that's gonna continue. But It was the individual efforts that got it done for us tonight.
Seth Jarvis
On how much of a weight lifted that goal was: It's huge. To be able to contribute to a win and help the team out like that is nice. Got the power play going even more after Jordo, followed his lead. Yeah, just have to keep this wave rolling now.
On evening up the series: It's big. You never want to lose two at home, so to get that one was really good for the group and now we have to carry this into Vegas and keep rolling.
On the fans going "tarpless" before the third period rally: That's the best thing about them: They're crazy. It's an amazing atmosphere to play in and to have people like that... it's not warm in there, so to take their tarps off and get the crowd going and the energy going, that's kind of what kickstarted our whole little press there in the third.
On the line changes: No notice, but just rolled with the punches. I love playing with Jordo and Fly though. I think we've had success in the Flyers series and just throughout the season just playing together. It's always good to shake it up a little bit, get different looks on different lines. I thought Marty did a great job at winning battles that maybe I was losing on Fishy's line and giving them second chances and then me, Fly, Jordo are all able to use our speed and make plays and capitalize that way.
On scoring a Stanley Cup Final overtime winner: It's incredible. I've imagined doing that a lot. To be able to do it in real life is awesome.
On Frederik Andersen: He's been our backbone all playoffs, all year. It's incredible for that guy. The way he steps up in big moments and shuts it down. He does a really good job not only saving pucks, but breaking pucks out and making it easy on our D-men. He's been incredible and we expect nothing less out of him and he expects nothing less of himself.
On the series so far: This is exciting. This is what playoff hockey is all about. It's tight games and momentum swings and you never really know what's going to happen next. I don't think you can ask anymore of a playoff series.
Jordan Staal
On the team's ability to rally: I think it's our fans too. The building got going, obviously we just needed a spark and Stanky did a great job obviously of getting us going. Our building is a tough building to play in when it gets going like that and the boys started feeling pretty good about themselves and got going. Just proud of the group for staying with it and being patient and finding a way.
On Logan Stankoven winning a 50/50 to get the team going: Like I said, we were looking for a spark. I mean, they were kind of shelling it up a little bit and not giving us much and it's tough. It's tough to find goals, but we got a bounce. That's kind of all it took, which is great, and then the boys kept rolling. So many great individual efforts from there. Janks just an absolute massive goal, but Will just taking out guys and kicking pucks and finding ways to get it to him. Everyone all through the lineup just making little plays and finding ways to just grind one out and get a win.
On what made the power play finally find some success: We made a few adjustments here and there, but I mean, when you're struggling, obviously the guys, we wanted it so bad in there, but for the most part, I think it's always about the next one, the next play, the next power play. You never know when it's gonna come up big for you. It's gonna have to continue to do that, but just shooting pucks and finding ways to get it to the net. They don't give you much, keep you to the outside, so it's just about finding ways to get a good quality shot and it was a great job on both goals.
On Will Carrier's play to set up Mark Jankowski's goal: I think the average fan wouldn't really realize how exceptional of a play that was. That guy is so strong and you just can't take him down. He wasn't giving up on that play and found a way to kick it up and make a play, make a pass. Just an incredible individual effort and that's what we needed. We needed something like that. It was a massive play for us.
On Vegas' goal challenge late in the third: When I was there, it looked like Freddie just kind of grabbed it and I heard a whistle and all the things. To me, it felt like a no goal. Obviously I'm on the other side of it, but I'm sure they have a different opinion. But my gut was like, 'Man, there's no way.' But what an incredible effort by Freddie. Just staying with that one and finding a way to get a piece of it. I was flopping everywhere. I had no idea what was going on. Freddie just stuck with it though. That guy is an absolute animal. That was a pretty crazy play and obviously a game changer for us.
On not letting frustration build in their game: I think our group these playoffs especially, has just been holding the rope. Just staying with it and just being patient with our game and trusting our game. I think we've done a great job of that and you could feel we were kind of wearing them down. Obviously we knew they went down to five D and we just kind of wanted to stay on them. It was just a great effort of being patient and comfortable in those situations and finding ways to jump on them when we had the momentum.
Mark Jankowski
On finally having a goal that counted: Yeah, honestly, it was going through my head like, 'Oh, what are they going to call this one back for,' but no, it was obviously a great play all around by my linemates. Huge for our line to get one and then we just kept pushing. They obviously tied it up late, but we had a lot of belief in our locker room and huge for the power play and Jarvy to get that one.
On what changed in the third period: We just got to our game. We were putting it behind them, heavy on the forecheck, just kind of what Carolina Hurricanes hockey is. Not trying to be too fancy in the neutral zone, taking what's given to us and going from there.
On Frederik Andersen: Freddie was huge like he's been all playoffs. The goals that have gone in, they're mainly on us. We have all the belief in Freddie and we haven't been doing a good enough job in front of him in that first game and the first half of this second game as well. We have all the belief in Freddie, he's been unbelievable all playoffs and a couple huge saves by him tonight.
On Logan Stankoven's spark: That was huge. 2-0 in the third period, we needed someone to step up and get us going and he had a great individual effort on that. Not the biggest guy, but he has the biggest heart. He had a huge one-on-one battle there getting to the net and just getting a greasy goal. That got us going for sure.
On evening up the series: It was huge. We obviously didn't want to go down 0-2 going to Vegas, but huge for us to tie it up. We were in the same position last round, losing that first one. But we just have all the belief in our group to come back and to stay persistent. That's a huge one for us and we're excited to get to Vegas and go from there.
Sebastian Aho
On evening up the series: Obviously big win for us. The first period, I thought we played a solid period and obviously not the result we wanted, but just kept pushing. I thought the bench was good. It was alive, but I also felt like there was trust. Some great plays. Stanky, a great individual effort to get us going and then just kept on pushing. Just good plays there to win the game. Obviously a big one, but it's just one. Now we flush this and move on.
On the power play coming through: Obviously that won us the game, right? So that's as big as it gets. At the same time, it doesn't matter how we win. The win is the goal, but yeah. Hopefully we can keep that going.
On what was different about the last two power plays: Let's just say the puck was going in.
On if he was nervous during the no-goal review: Honestly, I don’t know. Obviously, you’re hoping for the best. You can’t really control it. I didn’t have a really good view of it, so I had no clue. So, I was just hoping for the best. But that was kind of like how we had the mindset the whole night. Whatever happens, we would just go out there the next shift. Tat was a big power play goal there.
On Frederik Andersen: Unreal. All postseason. I feel like I've been saying this every time I talk to you guys. Big time plays from him.
On the team's message in the third period: It was just the same message throughout the whole game. Just next shift. Just keep pushing. Obviously good on us to be able to come back.
On if there's more of a sense of making the other team pay on a failed challenge: You’d like to make them pay every time, right? So I wouldn't say that. I mean, it’s a big swing because the other option is going down a goal. But other than that, it's just every time you get a power play, you’re trying to score. So, it’s not that different, but obviously it was a big swing.
On the team's overtime success: Honestly, we just keep playing the same way. I know it's a boring answer, but it's kind of how we do things. We just take the next shift and keep going and trust in each other and trust in the system, trust that someone is going to get it.
On if the team was cognizant that Vegas was down to five defenseman: You don't really pay too much attention to what the other team does, but yeah. I mean, we're aware that he left the game, but you don't really think too much about that stuff.
On the feeling when Seth Jarvis scores to win it: Unreal. I mean, that was a big win for us. That's one step forward. You're creating memories on the way and it was unreal.
On if he could feel momentum starting to turn once the crowd got back into it: I thought the crowd was unreal the whole night. They were behind us the whole time. It's just a fun place to play hockey. Obviously after those goals it was really loud, so maybe we did get some energy off of it.
On Shayne Gostisbehere: He has some poise. He's a good player, a smart player.
On if he thought Gostisbehere was going to pass it back to him: You're just reading off of him. I'm making myself available. You have to be ready for it. You don't know what he's gonna do. He's more often than not going to pick the right play and that was the case this time too.
On Vegas' adjustments: I mean, it's two really good teams going at it and you're trying to have a little edge here and there. They're watching video, we're watching video, so there's obviously some minor adjustments within the game. You can't focus too much on what they're doing because we have a lot on our plate on what we want to do.
On the fans taking off their shirts before the comeback: I was unaware of it, but whatever gets them going.
On if there were any moments to breathe and reset in that third period: After any shift, you come to the bench and take a breather. That's kind of what you always do and get ready for the next one. Obviously you probably get an extra boost off of the crowd but at the same time, it's business as usual. You come to the bench, you take a breather and you get ready for the next one.
On his appreciation for Seth Jarvis: What can I say? He's a great player, an unbelievable human being. I can't say enough good things about him.
On if the third period was fun to play: That's one way to describe it. It was fun. Obviously to be able to get the result we wanted, that's a lot more fun. At the end of the day, you don't care how you win, so long as you do win. I thought it was fun.
Logan Stankoven
On his goal changing the game's trajectory: I think it was just great to get the crowd back into it. I think when you're down and out, I think you just have to rely on hard work and being able to hound pucks. I just tried to hop off the draw there and take it to the net. Kind of got a bit lucky it ramped up his stick. I saw it go in and I was pretty excited.
On crowd's energy in the third period: Unbelievable. That's probably the loudest building I've ever played in front of before or seen and we feed off that. Everyone contributed. It took a bit longer to break it open than we would have liked, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. It's two tight teams playing hard and that's just the way it goes sometimes.
On the power play finally cashing in: I'm super happy for those guys. I think they've obviously been a little bit frustrated lately and our unit needs to get going too, but it's so nice seeing those guys contribute and score some big goals for us. I was really happy too for Jarv. He's got a heck of a shot, so it was nice to see him put one in the back of the net.
On the game: I think we had a pretty good start, weren't able to find the scoresheet, but the second was a bit of a downer for us. I thought the third though, we pushed a bit and found one and then started to roll off of that.
Recent Articles
Stay updated with the most interesting Carolina Hurricanes stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.