LAS VEGAS -- Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal sat in his locker, the unbelievable emotional toll of one of the most unfathomable Stanley Cup Final games ever played washing over him.
"Definitely a kick in the 'you know what,'" he said.
Staal watched his team give up four goals in the second period, chasing goalie Frederik Andersen from his crease for the first time in the playoffs. Then he helped his team stage a record-setting third period comeback to force overtime. And then, in double overtime, he watching the puck bounce wildly off the end boards before backup goalie Brandon Bussi accidentally kicked it into his own net.
The Vegas Golden Knights won 5-4 to take a 2-1 series lead.
"It's never going to be easy. We know that. We understand that. We've got a bigger hill to climb now, but we're excited for the challenge," Staal said.
How does a team pick itself off the mat after a loss like that?
"We're in the Stanley Cup finals. We're down 2-1. It's a tough way to lose a game, but they're all tough," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We've got to just bounce back. We have always. So I'm not worried about that."
Staal felt that Carolina "already lost the game in the second period," even though they pushed it to double overtime.
The Golden Knights scored five times in the second period, although only three of them counted. Vegas had two goals taken off the board in the second period by Carolina coach's challenge, neither of them all that controversial.
Mark Stone beat Andersen through his five-hole just 36 seconds into the period, but that was overturned when replays showed Vegas forward Brett Howden was clearly inside the zone before the puck.
Jack Eichel's goal four minutes into the period was also disallowed when Carolina challenged for goalie interference. Linemate Ivan Barbashev made clear contact with Andersen, jostling his head to the side, and the referees quickly announced "no goal" upon review.
Vegas broke through on the power play after Carolina was called for too many men on the ice. Eichel found Tomas Hertl in front before defenseman Jalen Chatfield could check him at 10:26 - the first PPG by Vegas in the series on 8 tries.
Then came the Mitch Marner show. The Vegas forward was credited with a goal that Carolina defenseman Sean Walker put behind his own goalie just 16 seconds after Hertl's goal. He scored again 3:50 later on an assist by defenseman Brayden McNabb, playing with a full face cage after leaving Game 2 when he took an 87-mph shot to his face. Marner completed his hat trick at 16:52 of the third on a slap shot that beat Andersen.
With his natural hat trick in the second period, Marner recorded the fastest three goals by a single player in Stanley Cup Final history: 6 minutes and 10 seconds, topping the previous record of 6:21 set by Montreal's Maurice Richard in 1957.
Vegas held a 4-0 lead after the second period. Teams were 108-0 when leading by 4-plus goals in the third period of a Stanley Cup Final game.
"You can't have those mistakes in the second period. You just can't have them this time of year," coach Rod Brind'Amour, who pulled Andersen after giving up 4 goals on 16 shots, said.
Goaltender Brandon Bussi entered the game, seeing his first action since April 14. He was tested 4:04 into the third when Mitch Marner was awarded a penalty shot after getting slashed by Sebastian Aho while on a shorthanded breakaway. Bussi made the save, preventing Marner's fourth goal and a 5-0 third period lead.
Then came another shocking moment in a game full of them: three goals scored in a 39-second span to set a new Stanley Cup Final record. The previous mark was 56 seconds by Montreal in Game 2 of the 1954 Final.
Jordan Martinook struck first at 7:03, depositing a rebound Hart left in his crease. Taylor Hall made it 4-2 off a pass from Aho at 7:29. Just 13 seconds after that, Jordan Staal tipped home a shot by Jaccob Slavin for their third goal on three shots against Hart.
With 1:42 left in regulation, with Bussi pulled and Carolina on a power play thanks to Shea Theodore putting the puck over the glass, Andrei Svechnikov completed the historic comeback to force overtime. There had previously only been one instance of a team erasing a deficit of four or more goals in the Stanley Cup Final, regardless of the result: The Rangers rallying from a 5-1 hole against Boston in 1972.
"I've experienced a lot of games and playoffs. I haven't experienced one like this, where we couldn't do nothing wrong in the second period and probably did everything wrong in the third period. It just comes and goes so quickly. I don't have an answer," Vegas coach John Tortorella said.
History was against the Hurricanes, however. Teams were 108-0 in the Stanley Cup Final when leading by four or more goals in the third period.
Now it's 109-0. Theodore won the game at 5:38 of double-overtime, as his shot bounced off the lively end boards and then was kicked in by Bussi.
"Shot from the point. I saw it all the way. They hit the yellow and it shot out a lot quicker than I thought, so I guess I kicked it in," Bussi said. "It stinks. It's not what we wanted. We felt like we had our chances in overtime, but to win the Stanley Cup, it's hard. We have to put this one behind us."
Carolina has been adept at that. They bounced back from both of their losses in the Stanley Cup Playoffs to win the next game. They haven't lost back-to-back games since Jan. 12-13 in the regular season.
But questions linger after this loss, ahead of Tuesday's Game 4 in Vegas. What's the status of forward William Carrier, who left Game 3 with an upper body injury? What will the lines look like after Brind'Amour put them in a blender? Perhaps most importantly, will Andersen get the crease back or does Bussi get the Game 4 start?
Brind'Amour wasn't prepared to answer that last one.
"Freddie's the reason why we're here right now. So if they tell me I'm going, great, if not, I'll be ready," said Bussi, who was excited to finally get his shot in the playoffs. "It's the Stanley Cup finals. That's cool, right But the result wasn't cool."