Tarps off: How a bunch of shirtless fans helped the Hurricanes win Game 2

RALEIGH — Take your shirt off, indeed, for the Carolina Hurricanes.

It wasn’t Petey Pablo’s ubiquitous state anthem but instead a new tarps off craze that is sweeping sports that led fans in the Lenovo Center crowd to take their shirts off in the third period.

It may have to be a new tradition for the Hurricanes, who scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of the period and eventually won Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final 4-3 in overtime on Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The shirtless fans definitely played a role.

“It’s not warm in there, so to take your shirts off and get the crowd going and get the energy going, that’s kind of what kickstarted our whole little press there,” said Seth Jarvis, who scored the game winner less than four minutes into overtime.

The crowd had been as lifeless as the team’s offense through the first 50 minutes of Game 2. Vegas led 2-0, and the Hurricanes appeared on their way to losing the first two games of the series at home.

But a prompt from the video board, a few stellar shifts and a goal by Logan Stankoven jolted the crowd — and the team – back into the game and, by extension, the series.

“It’s our fans, too,” captain Jordan Staal said, who scored the go-ahead goal to give Carolina a 3-2 lead in the third period. “The building got going. Obviously we just needed a spark and Stanky [Stankoven] did a great job getting us going. The building is a tough building to play in when it gets going like that and the boys start to feel pretty good about themselves.”

With the comeback underway, there was no putting the shirts back on. Two shirtless fans sounded the siren before the overtime period.

“That’s the best thing about them: they’re crazy,” Jarvis said of the fans. “It’s an amazing atmosphere to play in.”