Jarvis' goal gives Hurricanes OT win in Game 2 of Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes have a new lease on life in the Stanley Cup Finals.

And Seth Jarvis has an enormous weight lifted off his shoulders.

Jarvis, moved from the first line to the third line earlier in the game, scored a power-play goal less than four minutes into overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night.

It was the second thrilling game to open the Cup final, which now heads to Las Vegas tied at one.

“You get a new shot of life is what it feels like,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s what we definitely needed.”

On the verge of losing the first two games at home — and finding themselves in a near insurmountable hole — the Hurricanes scored three times in a 5:05 span in the third period to erase a 2-0 deficit and send the partially shirtless Lenovo Center crowd into a frenzy.

The Golden Knights responded with a game-tying goal by Mark Stone with 81 seconds remaining after they’d pulled the goalie for an extra attacker.

In overtime, where Carolina is now 6-0 in these playoffs, captain Jordan Staal drew a tripping penalty and on the ensuing power play Jarvis blasted a shot from the right wing for the game winner.

“It’s huge,” Jarvis said. “To be able to contribute to a win and help the team out like that, it’s nice.”

The Hurricanes, though they looked good for spurts, couldn’t score and broke up their top line in the second period shifting Jarvis to the third line in a swap with Jordan Martinook.

It was players from other lines that got the Canes back into the game.

Logan Stankoven, the Canes’ second-line center, scored his 10th goal of the playoffs midway through the third period to cut the deficit to 2-1.

“We were looking for a spark,” Staal said.

Stankoven’s goal certainly lit something in the Hurricanes.

Less than three minutes later, Mark Jankowski — assisted by the two other members of Carolina's fourth line — tied the game at 2. William Carrier’s work along the board and in corralling the puck helped set up Jankowski’s first goal of the postseason.

Then came the series that may define the Stanley Cup Final, depending on its eventual outcome.

With five minutes left in the third, a sprawling Freddie Andersen stopped Ivan Barbashev on a wraparound attempt with his stick. Barbashev had just missed scoring to Andersen’s right, then tried a wraparound and Andersen dove to his left and stopped the puck with his stick. He then tried to cover it with his glove.

Barbashev poked at the puck and it went in, those officials ruled it a no goal on the ice. Vegas challenged the ruling. After a review, officials stuck with the original call, sending a Vegas player to the penalty box for an incorrect challenge.

“I saw a loose puck in front of Freddie,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “Our player stabbed it, didn’t move the goalie and it goes through into the other side. I challenge it 10 out of 10 times.”

Twenty-five seconds into the power play, Staal deflected a Shayne Gostisbehere shot past Vegas goaltender Carter Hart to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead, their first of the game.

“That could easily have gone a different way – how we felt about it — because that emotion the last 10 minutes, I mean, you can’t get much more exciting hockey than it,” Brind’Amour said.

Brett Howden, Vegas’ breakout postseason star, scored with 6:27 left in the first period off a long pass from Mitch Marner. Howden outfought Carolina defenseman Sean Walker near the blueline, appearing to grab Walker’s stick at one point, and then beat Andersen to the glove side.

In the second period, Howden scored his 13th goal of the playoffs to give Vegas a 2-0 lead. Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin couldn’t corral Howden, who was able to slip his backhand shot over a sprawling Andersen.

Howden had 12 goals in 58 regular-season games.

In the second period, the Hurricanes moved Martinook to play with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov on the team’s top line. Jarivs shifted to play with Jordan Staal and Nikolaj Ehlers in the second period.

The usual top line of Jarvis, Ahio and Svechnikov has just 22 points this postseason in the first 14 games. The Hurricanes made the same switch during Game 2 of its second-round sweep of Philadelphia as well.

“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 to just change it up,” Brind’Amour said. “I don’t know if it worked or [did] not worked, but you got to do something at that point.”

Said Jarvis: “It’s always good to shake it up a little bit, get different looks on different lines.”

In the first period, Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb was hit in the face by a slap shot from Nikolaj Ehlers. Ehlers’ shot was 87 mph, according to NHL.com. McNabb fell to the ground and then rushed off the ice to the locker room. He was taken to the hospital for further examination, ESPN reported. The Golden Knights played the rest of the game with five defensemen.