After a stirring comeback, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals on Monday with a gift of a goal.
Rod Brind'Amour scored off a flukey mistake with 31.1 seconds remaining after Edmonton's backup goalie botched an exchange behind the net, and the Hurricanes, after falling behind 3-0, rallied to win 5-4.
Ty Conklin had to take over in goal for Edmonton with just under six minutes remaining after Dwayne Roloson, the star of the eighth-seeded Oilers' improbable playoff run, was injured in a collision which knocked the net off its moorings.
Roloson sustained a series-ending knee injury, apparently meaning Conklin will have to go the rest of the way. He didn't pass his first test.
With overtime looming, Conklin went behind the net to play the puck on a seemingly routine play. But he appeared to cross up teammate Jason Smith with a backhanded pass, the puck deflecting off Smith's stick and sliding in front of an open net.
"I just held onto to the puck too long," Conklin said. "I didn't make the play quickly, you know? It's not a mistake I think I would normally make."
Brind'Amour scored his second goal of the night -- and he'll never get an easier one. Smith dove in a futile attempt to knock the puck away and Conklin was still coming around from behind the net when it crossed the line.
"It wasn't much that I did," Brind'Amour said. "It was just a matter of flipping it into the net. You don't get too many of those, but I'll definitely take them."
Carolina's rookie goalie, Cam Ward, had another brilliant playoff performance after backing up Martin Gerber through most of the regular season. Ward made 34 saves, including the second of two stirring stops on Shawn Horcoff at the side of the net with 3.8 seconds left.
Game 2 is today in Raleigh. Then, the series shifts to Edmonton for the next two games.
Carolina matched the biggest comeback in finals history, equaling five other teams that overcame a three-goal deficit to win. Edmonton's Chris Pronger scored the first penalty shot goal in finals history. Carolina finally scored late in the second period, then strung together three rapid-fire goals in the third. Justin Williams put the Hurricanes ahead for the first time on a shorthanded breakaway goal with 9:58 remaining in regulation.
The Oilers weren't done, either. After Ward made a brilliant stop on Horcoff, flinging his body back across the crease to somehow get an arm on the puck, Edmonton tied it up on a power-play goal by Ales Hemsky with 6:29 to go.
Roloson was hurt when Carolina's Andrew Ladd carried the puck into the Edmonton zone, cut across in the front of the net and was met there by Edmonton defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who unloaded a big hit from behind that drove Ladd into Roloson.
Conklin or Jussi Markkanen will have to fill in for Roloson, a trade-deadline acquisition who was a major reason Edmonton became the first No. 8 seed to advance to the finals under the current playoff format.
"We've got two guys that we've got a lot of confidence in Jussi and Conks," Pronger said. "They haven't played that much in the last two or three months, but at the same time, I've seen them at practices and they've been working hard and trying to stay sharp. They'll do a good job."
Edmonton led 3-0 after Fernando Pisani scored his team-leading 10th goal of the playoffs followed by Pronger's rare penalty shot, then Ethan Moreau's deflection in with less than three-and-a-half minutes to go in the second period.
Brind'Amour sparked the comeback less than a minute later when he scored Carolina's first goal, and Ray Whitney claimed back-to-back goals early in the third to tie it up. Then Williams scooped up a loose puck along the boards and swept in on a breakaway which gave Carolina its first lead.
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