This was a game the Carolina Hurricanes needed to have, needed to win.
The Canes lost the opening game of their Stanley Cup playoff series to the Boston Bruins and needed to even it in Game 2. The Bruins were playing Thursday without forward David Pastrnak, their leading scorer, out with an injury apparently suffered celebrating Boston's winning goal in the second overtime of Game 1.
Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour said he needed "all hands on deck" and then shuffled the dek with his lineup. Forward Justin Williams, who was unfit to play in Game 1, was back in. Defensemen Sami Vatanen and Trevor van Riemsdyk played. Goalie James Reimer got the start. The lines were switched up.
In the end, the Canes held on and won 3-2. The final seconds of regulation were hectic, with the Bruins pulling goalie Tuukka Rask and keeping the puck in the Carolina zone, but the Canes refused to allow a tying goal against a team that had five straight playoff wins over Carolina.
Dougie Hamilton's first goal of the postseason, on a blistering slapshot from the right circle, gave the Canes a 3-2 lead at 8:30 of the third period. It was vintage Hamilton, who had 14 goals in 47 games in the regular season before breaking his left leg and was playing as well as any defenseman in the league.
The Bruins, 0-4 on the power play in Game 1, scored twice with a man advantage Thursday as David Krejci winged a shot past Reimer in the first period and Brad Marchand knocked in a rebound in the final seconds of the second period.
The Canes countered with two goals in 88 seconds in the second, with Teuvo Tervainen first ripping a power-play shot and then Andrei Svechnikov taking a pass from Martin Necas and beating Rask high to the blocker side for a 2-1 lead.
After a slow, tentative start it became a chippy game. In one exchange in the first period, the Canes' Jordan Staal had his helmet ripped off by Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who then rolled the helmet across the ice.
A referee was close by but there was no call. Instead, the ref appeared to tell Staal that since he was helmet-less he needed to immediately leave the ice.
Brind'Amour was not happy with that. And he was more angry in the second when Teravainen was called for tripping defenseman Torey Krug, who was skating back and bumped into Teravainen, falling down.
Brind'Amour was fined $25,000 by the NHL for some biting, critical comments about the refs and the league after Game 1. He made himself heard during Game 2.
Brind'Amour also lost another coach's challenge after a Canes goal in the third was waved off for incidental goaltender interference by Teravainen. The Bruins had another power play bu the Canes were able to lill off that penalty to keep it a 2-2 game.
Svechnikov made himself felt in the second. After taking an elbow to the face from McAvoy, he hammered the defenseman into the boards. Svechnikov was penalized, as was the Bruins' Zdeno Chara after he jostled with Svechnikov.
The Bruins' top line of Patrice Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak tormented the Canes in Game 1. Bergeron scored the winning goal in the second overtime off a Pastrnak pass, only to have a leaping Pastrnak left in pain.
Anders Bjork replaced him Pastrnak on the top line. Brind'Amour, in contrast, moved Svechnikov off the Aho line, replacing him with Warren Foegele and then using Jordan Martinook on the line in the third.
