Fastest hat-trick in Stanley Cup Final
Things weren’t going well in Toronto, and he was under heavy criticism – that’s one of the reasons why Mitchell Marner decided to sign with Vegas before the season. And it turned out to be the right move. He leads the playoff scoring race by a huge margin of eight points and made history again in the third game of the finals.
The Canadian forward scored a hat-trick in just six minutes and 10 seconds in the second period, the fastest three goals ever in an NHL final series.
He broke the 69-year-old record of the legendary Maurice Richard by 11 seconds. Marner also became only the seventh player in history to score a 'natural hat-trick' in the Stanley Cup Final.
Four points in a single period
As if that wasn’t enough for Marner, he also assisted on Hertl’s opening goal in the second period. That gave him four points (3+1) in a single period, something only Frank Foyston had achieved before in a finals battle, and that was back in 1919.
Marner also became the first Golden Knights player ever to record at least two four-point games in a single playoff run.
Carolina's sensational comeback
Even though John Tortorella’s team led 4-0 after two periods and seemed to have the game under control, Carolina didn’t give up and turned the game into a real thriller. Ironically, it was Marner, the hero, who sparked the comeback for the seemingly defeated opponent.
The Markham native could have scored his fourth goal on a penalty shot in the 45th minute, but Brandon Bussi made the save. "I was pretty tired, and before the attempt, I didn’t notice that Carolina had changed goalies. Bussi catches with the opposite hand, but I still think my move was pretty good, I just missed by a little," Marner said.
And then came the punishment. At 47:03, Jordan Martinook scored a goal to give hope, followed 26 seconds later by Taylor Hall, and just 13 seconds after that, Jordan Staal cut the deficit to just one goal.
Three goals in 39 seconds: No team had ever done that before in a Stanley Cup Final match. The overall playoff record belongs to Toronto, who scored three goals in 23 seconds in 1979.
And the Hurricanes weren’t done yet. With less than two minutes left, Andrei Svechnikov erased the four-goal deficit and sent the game to overtime.
Carolina thus became only the second team in history to come back from a four-goal deficit in a final. The same feat was achieved by the Rangers in 1972, but the New York team still lost the game to Boston (5:6).
Theodore the hero
The game, which had fans on the edge of their seats, finally went to a second overtime. At 85:38, defenseman Shea Theodore ended it, sending the puck past goalie Bussi with a lucky bounce off the boards.
"More than anything, I just felt relief. In the second overtime, you don’t overthink things. I just threw it in front of the net, and luckily it crossed the line," Theodore said about the decisive moment.
There are also some interesting facts about Theodore, too. He became only the seventh defenseman in NHL history to score at least two overtime goals in a single playoff run. Only two defensemen have scored three - Chris Chelios and Alec Martinez.
It’s also worth noting that Theodore is the only active defenseman to have scored two overtime goals in the playoffs.
