Carolina Hurricanes get right play at right time in Game 2, thanks to ‘Stanks’
For the first 50 minutes Thursday, the game belonged to the Vegas Golden Knights.
But the last 10 minutes of regulation, then overtime?
“You can’t get much more exciting hockey than that,” Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
Seth Jarvis created bedlam in the Lenovo Center, his overtime goal giving the Canes a 4-3 victory in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. The place already was crazy, many of the fans taking off their shirts and twirling them over their heads in a “Tarps Off” move that Jarvis would credit with helping spur the scintillating comeback.
But as important as Jarvis’ power-play goal was — and it was huge, the winner — the biggest, the most timely, belonged to center Logan Stankoven.
For the first 50 minutes of the game, a telling play appeared to be the first of two goals by Vegas’ Brett Howden. The forward, taking a flip pass from Mitch Marner at the Carolina blue line, outfought defenseman Sean Walker for the puck, skated in and scored.
Vegas coach John Tortorella said his team continually finds ways to win games and Howden’s goal, equal parts pure determination and finishing skill, was a find-a-way play. It was one of just two shots by the Golden Knights in the first period, but it gave Vegas a 1-0 lead after a period controlled by the Canes.
Then, Stankoven topped it.
“Somebody had to stand up, somebody had to make a play,” Brind’Amour said. ”And that’s what happened. ‘Stanks’ makes a play.”
Stankoven is listed at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds. Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson is 6-1 and 202 pounds and seems bigger. Stankoven took the puck from Andersson behind the Vegas net, quickly pivoted at the post for a backhander that got through traffic around the crease and past goalie Carter Hart at 10:20 of the third period.
Just like that, it was a game. It was a series — or about to be.
“When you’re down and out, you’ve got to rely on hard work and being able to hunt pucks,” Stankoven said. “I got a little bit lucky when it ramped up his stick. When I saw it going in I was pretty excited. … We found one and started to roll after that.”
Canes center Mark Jankowski scored for a 2-2 tie. Jordan Staal scored on the power play for a 3-2 lead. And even after Mark Stone tied it for Vegas late, after Hart was pulled for a sixth attacker, the Canes went into overtime with the confidence of knowing they were 5-0 in OT games in this year’s playoffs.
And now, 6-0.
“We had been there, right? It was like business as usual,” Brind’Amour said of OT.
The Canes went about their business in the first period Thursday, only to trail 1-0. The second period was a poor one for the home team and the crowd restless.
Then Stankoven scored. Shirts came off in the crowd for “tarps off” and the place was alive. The Canes were on their way to their first Stanley Cup Final win since Game 7 in 2006 in the arena, then the RBC Center.
Brind’Amour was asked after the game how Stankoven, the little guy, was able to make such a play against Andersson, a big, rugged D-man.
Brind’Amour tapped his chest, over his heart.
“You can’t measure that stuff,” he said.
“He just keeps doing it, night in and night out. Determination, all that stuff. It’s pretty amazing.”
It made for an amazing finish Thursday. And that could make for an amazing Stanley Cup Final.
This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 2:15 AM with the headline "Carolina Hurricanes get right play at right time in Game 2, thanks to ‘Stanks’."
