Carolina vs. Detroit 1:2
Larionov saves Wings in third-longest finals game
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Igor Larionov's first goal made him the oldest player to score in a Stanley Cup finals game. By the time he got his second, he felt a lot older -- and a lot better about this series.
Larionov
Larionov scored his second goal of the game 14:47 into the third overtime and the weary Detroit Red Wings, the NHL's oldest team, outlasted the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 Saturday night in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.
The Red Wings, much older than the Hurricanes but seemingly much fresher throughout the long night, take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 on Monday night despite losing Game 1 in overtime.
"We may be old, but I was telling Igor that I'd rather be old and smart than young and dumb,'' said Brett Hull, a classic big-game scorer who got the tying goal late in the third period. "Youth and enthusiasm can only take you only so far.''
Detroit, which had most of the good scoring chances in overtime, won it on a 3-on-2 break. The 41-year-old Larionov took a pass from Tomas Holmstrom, cut across the slot, causing Carolina forward Bates Battaglia to slip to the ice, and calmly beat goalie Arturs Irbe with a backhander. Irbe made 50 saves before that in the third-longest finals game ever.
Larionov's goal came at 54 minutes, 47 seconds of overtime, or only four seconds shorter than the second longest overtime, Dallas' Cup-clinching victory over Buffalo decided by Hull's disputed goal in 1999. The longest was 55 minutes, 13 seconds between Edmonton and Boston in 1990.
"It's the biggest goal of my career,'' Larionov said. "Holmstrom made a great play, and I decided to wait a little bit. He (Battaglia) committed to me, and he slid on ice, so I took my time and put it in.''
Larionov also put Detroit into the lead in a tightly played, give-no-ground series that is nothing like the Red Wings' blowout that many predicted. But if it wasn't for Hull, who has specialized in big goals in big playoff games, they might be trailing.
Hull, who had three game-winning goals in the 1999 and 2000 finals for Dallas, lifted his stick to deflect Nicklas Lidstrom's shot past Irbe to tie it with only 1:14 left in the third period, just over nine minutes after Jeff O'Neill put Carolina in the lead.
It was Hull's 99th career playoff goal, and it changed the momentum of the game -- and maybe the series.
"It's a tough loss, you can't hide it,'' Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "We're not going to go in waving pompoms and say it's all right.''
Hull could feel the tension on the Red Wings' bench before he scored.
"With a team that's playing as well as they are, if you go down 2-1 you're not out of it, but it changes the way they're feeling about themselves,'' Hull said. "Then, to score and know still have a chance to win when you were seconds away from losing ... it's their team that's sagging.''
Hull's goal, a deflection of Nicklas Lidstrom's shot from the blue line, set up the second overtime in three games, but this one lasted a lot longer than Game 1, Carolina's 3-2 victory decided by Ron Francis' goal 58 seconds into overtime.
Detroit dominated the first two overtimes by rolling four lines to Carolina's three, thus negating the Hurricanes' youth advantage. Each team had a rare overtime power play in the second extra period, but couldn't convert. Irbe made the save of the game midway through the second overtime, stretching out his stick and glove to barely deflect Steve Yzerman's shot toward a momentarily empty net.
Long before that, with the score tied at 1 for the third straight game and the next goal seemingly destined to decide the winner, O'Neill scored at 7:34 of the third, his seventh of the playoffs and sixth in 10 games.
Ron Francis nudged the puck to O'Neill from the neutral zone and, with a step on Lidstrom, lofted an end-over-end shot that eluded goalie Dominik Hasek to the glove side and inside the far post.
But Hasek, who gave up the Hull goal that decided that three-overtime Game 6 in Buffalo in 1999, didn't give up another goal, finishing with 41 saves -- 22 in overtime, shutting out Carolina for longer than a regulation game.
The Hurricanes are now 7-2 in overtime games in the playoffs.
The home team scored the first goal for the third straight game, with Carolina taking its first lead of the series on Josef Vasicek's goal at 14:49 of the first -- and it nearly lifted the metal roof off the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
Vasicek's goal was the most artistic of a tight-checking, inch-your-way up the ice finals in which open ice has been nearly invisible. Just before he would have collided with Steve Duchesne, Vasicek pushed the puck around the defenseman, regained his balance and, with Sergei Fedorov draped on him, lifted it over Hasek's blocker.
Defenseman Glen Wesley got the second assist on the goal, his first playoff point in 34 games since May 1994.
The sellout crowd of 18,982 was college-like in its enthusiasm and noise level throughout, perhaps because hundreds of spectators spent the afternoon tailgating next door at North Carolina State's football stadium.
The crowd stayed loud for most of the first two periods, only to be quieted by Larionov's tying goal early in the second period for Detroit, after one of Carolina's few defensive mistakes.
As the Hurricanes were trying to get the puck out of their own end, Sean Hill couldn't clear, and Hull -- unusually quiet in the first two games -- swept in and stole the puck off his stick. In the same motion, he directed it to Larionov, who nudged it past Irbe.
Larionov, at 41 years and 187 days the NHL's oldest player, became the oldest to score a goal in a final game, a year after Colorado's Ray Bourque became the first 40-year-old to score in the finals. But it is his second goal that will be most remembered.
Although some series take a few games to develop a pace and a personality of their own, the tone for this one was quickly established in Game 1 and, so far, hasn't changed.
Carolina, one of the biggest finals underdogs ever, can't match Detroit in star power or big scorers, so it has forced the Red Wings to play its game -- patient and physical, with every spot of the ice defended and no player left open for more than a fraction of a second.
"I feel bad for the Hurricanes,'' Hull said. "All that stuff that was said about them before the series? They're a great team, and they're imbedded in the system their coach wants them to play. You get a team that plays that way and is determined, it's such a tough system to crack. They're a tough, tough opponent.''
Game notes
The team winning Game 3 of a 1-1 series has gone on to win the Cup 20 of 23 times. Pittsburgh in 1991 was the last team to rally from such a deficit. ... Vasicek's goal was his first in nine games. ... Just as in most NHL arenas, there are championship banners hanging from the ceiling, but they belong to North Carolina State's basketball team, which shares the 3-year-old arena with the Hurricanes. ... Again, neither team could do any damage on the power play, with Carolina going 0-for-5 and Detroit 0-for-4. Detroit is 2-for-19 in the series and Carolina is 1-for-19.
Loss leaves the 'Canes -- and their fans -- deflated
By Eric Adelson
ESPN The Magazine
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The din rattled, pounded, rung the ears, and then dwindled to a lonely gasp. The decibel level measured 114 at half past eight, as loud as a jet plane, and gradually dropped all the way to single digits by half past one -- as quiet as 25 players in red screaming in exultation.
And in the Hurricanes locker room, you could hear a win drop.
The 'Canes played a masterful Game 3 -- backstopped by a goalie in the game of his life and cheered into the wee hours by a riotous throng. It was the perfect storm, and still the home team capsized in three overtimes, 3-2.
How can Carolina possibly recover from this?
"I don't know how you do," whispered Kevyn Adams. "But you do. Physically, the adrenaline gets you up. But mentally is another story."
How does Arturs Irbe pick himself up after allowing shot No. 53 to sail over his prone body, knowing that he outplayed Europe's best goaltender in the third-longest game in Stanley Cup finals history?
Irbe was simply amazing. He stuffed Pavel Datsyuk on the night's prettiest play after the Russian had nutmegged two defenders and deked Irbe to the ice. He dove to deny Steve Yzerman after a brilliant pass from Brendan Shanahan. The Red Wings hit the post five times, and hit the goaltender an even 50. Irbe had the Hall of Famers shaking their heads on the bench and looking skyward in disbelief. The little man had the mighty Red Wings beaten. It was the single best goaltending performance in this year's playoffs.
And now he must do it again. This time with the Red Wings smelling blood.
But it's not just the team that must come back for more. It's the entire giddy town of Raleigh -- so Cup Crazy on Saturday, but so weary now.
They began tailgating Saturday at four in the afternoon. They filed inside with their face paint and signs: "Southern Fried Octopi!" and "Beating the Wings is Better than Aunt Bee's Sweet Potato Pie!" They filled the cement concourses with Ric Flair whoops and "Let's Go Canes!" chants. They posed with the Prince of Wales Trophy. And they exploded as their team took a 2-1 lead into the last two minutes of the game.
And then they saw Brett Hull flick his wrists and smirk. Tie game.
Then the fans turned and slumped out into the concourse.
"I can't believe it," one said. Raleigh native Brian Cookson sprinted through the hallways trying to get the fans back into it. "No one wants to scream anymore?" he yelled. "Are we just going to give the Cup to the Red Wings? Can I get a 'Hell Yeah'?"
No one said a thing.
Overtime began, and the Entertainment and Sports Arena felt like a library. The Wings peppered Irbe with shot after perilous shot, urged on by a distant and poignant "Let's Go Red Wings!" from deep in the cheap seats. The scoreboard operator tried to help: "I know you're nervous," the Jumbotron blared, "but y'all gotta make some noise!"
Very little came. Those towels -- reminiscent of the Homer Hankies waved by Minnesota Twins fans a decade ago -- now flung about like white flags of surrender.
Irbe was incredible after regulation -- stopping 24 shots -- but the momentum was lost. The 'Canes had, like their fans, exhausted themselves. Carolina had outshot Detroit 14-13 through two periods, but then was outshot by the Wings 27-12 in the next 40 minutes. The Hurricanes seemed to get a second wind at the stroke of midnight, but Igor Larionov's game winner quelched that.
Afterward, a raccoon-eyed Paul Maurice walked alone down a dark corridor to the Carolina locker room. "It's a tough loss," he said, almost to himself. "We'll grieve for the appropriate amount of time."
And again, how can Carolina recover from this?
"Well, we don't have to play tomorrow," Maurice said.
But Maurice was wrong. By then it was almost 2 on Sunday morning.
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Mats
Ich werde keinerlei Prognosen, den Ausgang der nächsten Saison betreffend, abgeben!
AC/DC rules!
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das war echt eine anstrengende Nacht, um kurz nach 5 dann erstmal 8 Runden Tyson und dann wieder weiter Detroit gekuckt!!! Ich freue mich auch für die Wings und ihren Russen Opa
ÖsiGiant#7
Larionov, der uns um kurz vor halb 8 von den "Qualen" der 3. Overtime erlöst.
