Hurricanes comeback not enough in thrilling double-overtime Game 3 loss in Vegas

LAS VEGAS — In a city where real and fake are so effortlessly intertwined as to attempt to obscure any difference between them, it’s not unreasonable to ask what parts of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final actually happened.

It can’t be that the Carolina Hurricanes, having been run all but run off the ice by the Vegas Golden Knights, scored four unanswered goals in the third period to force overtime and double overtime.

It can’t be that the comeback is now a mere footnote in a 5-4 victory by the Vegas Golden Knights. It can’t be that Brandon Bussi, having waited so long for a n opportunity, allowed the winning goal off a fluke bounce.

Except it was real — every last bit of it.

The disallowed goals, Mitch Marner’s hat trick, Bussi’s appearance, three goals in a Stanley Cup Final-record 39 seconds, the chaotic tying goal and, yes, a final goal that careened off the boards and into the net off Bussi’s skate more than five minutes into double overtime.

“Probably the toughest game I ever lost,” said Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov, who scored the game-tying goal with 1:42 left in regulation and stunned the Vegas crowd.

The reality now is that Vegas leads the series 2-1 and needs just two wins to capture the Cup for the second time in four seasons. Game 4 is Tuesday in Las Vegas.

“Stress game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour called it. “You put stress on the other team, they cough it up. It’s in the net.”

The Hurricanes successfully challenged two Vegas goals — one for offside and one for goaltender interference — in the first four minutes of the second period. 

The disallowed goals did little, however, to stop the Vegas second-period onslaught. 

Following a Svechnikov penalty for too many men on the ice, Vegas scored a power-play goal when Jack Eichel found Tomas Hertl, the Game 1 hero, alone in front of Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Fourteen seconds later, it was 2-0. Marner whipped a backhanded pass to the front of the net. It hit Carolina defenseman Sean Walker’s stick, deflecting past Andersen. There was no Vegas player around.

Marner would need no good fortune for his next two tallies. Less than four minutes later, Andersen stopped Marner on a breakaway. But the Hurricanes were unable to clear the zone and the puck found its way back to Marner, who wouldn’t be denied by Andersen a second time.

With 3:09 left in the period, Marner blasted a slap shot past Andersen for his third goal of the evening. Fans tossed hats onto the ice for the hat trick, about the only things that could delay the Vegas rush at that point.

Marner, the biggest free-agent acquisition in the league in the offseason, has 10 goals in the postseason.

“We just dug ourselves a little too big a hole there,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said after his team’s first overtime loss this postseason.

Trailing 4-0, the Hurricanes pulled starting goaltender Frederik Andersen for the third period. 

“No reason to leave Fredie in there the way that one was going,” Brind’Amour said.

Bussi, a regular-season hero for the Hurricanes, got his first action of the entire postseason.

“Just put my head down and stop the puck,” Bussi said.

He immediately was tested, stopping Marner on a penalty shot. It may have been the spark the Hurricanes needed.

They responded with three goals in record time.

Jordan Martinook had the Hurricanes first goal at the 7:02 mark of the third period. Taylor Hall, off a pass from Sebastian Aho, had Carolina's second goal at 7:29. And Jordan Staal capped the barrage with a tip-in goal at the 7:42 mark.

“We’re a resilient team,” Bussi said. “We don’t give up.”

With the Hurricanes on the power play in the final minutes and Bussi headed to the bench, it was Svechnikov who got the puck in the net amid pure chaos in front of – and behind – Vegas goaltender Carter Hart. Carolina’s Nikolaj Ehlers was shoved into the back of the net before the goal.

In Game 2, Carolina became the first team since 1944 to win a Stanley Cup Final game after trailing by two goals with 10 minutes left in the third period. In Game 3, the Hurricanes erased a four-goal deficit in the third period.

But the comeback would be for naught.

Shea Theodore’s blast from the point was wide of the net, but it bounced back quickly, slipping past the stick of Martinook and off the skate of Bussi.

It was over. Really.

“From the point, I saw it all the way,” Bussi said. “It hit the yellow and shot out a lot quicker than I thought, so I guess I kicked it in. It stinks. It's not what we wanted. We felt like we had our chances in overtime, but to win the Stanley Cup, it's hard.”

Some things, even in this city, are inescapably true.