This Day in Canes History: June 8

On this day in Canes history ...

June 8, 2002

The Carolina Hurricanes host Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, marking the first Stanley Cup Finals game at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena. The game goes into triple-overtime before Detroit's Igor Larionov scores at the 54:47 mark of extra time.

The 2001-02 season marked the Hurricanes' fifth in North Carolina and third in Raleigh, and for the second consecutive season, they had qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Canes avenged their quarterfinals loss to the New Jersey Devils from the year prior with a six-game first-round series win. Sparked by the "Miracle at Molson," the Canes rallied against the Montreal Canadiens to win their semifinals match-up in six games. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Canes then knocked off the Toronto Maple Leafs, who finished the regular season with the second-most points in the conference and third-most in the league, in six games.

It was on to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Canes appearing in the championship series for the first time in franchise history and doing so against a team that finished atop the league standings in the regular season.

Raleigh was gripped with Stanley Cup fever, and, with the series tied at one game apiece, a crowd of 18,982 packed the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena for the franchise's first Finals home game.

Jeff O'Neill won the opening draw, and Game 3 was underway.

Josef Vasicek got the Canes on the board first. On the first shift after a Carolina power play, Glen Wesley banged a puck off the boards in the neutral zone. Martin Gelinas skated in onside and left the puck for Vasicek, who corralled it, danced between a pair of defenders and, while falling to the ice, beat Dominik Hasek to his blocker side.

Igor Larionov scored his first goal of the game about five-and-a-half minutes into the second period, a chip shot off a Brett Hull pass after the Canes turned the puck over behind their own net in four-on-four.

After more four-on-four play in the third period - this was an emotional, physical, chippy game - Ron Francis put a puck on O'Neill's tape as he split the Detroit defense at the blue line. He skated in with room and snapped off a shot that beat Hasek glove-side high, giving the Canes a 2-1 lead with 12:26 to play.

With about 80 seconds left in regulation, Steve Yzerman grinded out an offensive-zone faceoff win back to Sergei Fedorov, who swung it over to Nicklas Lidstrom at the opposite point. Lidstrom snapped off a shot that was redirected by Hull, and the game was tied at two.

One overtime turned into two turned into three. June 8 turned into June 9.

Through it all, the physicality didn't drop. The intensity didn't waver. The two teams traded chances at either end, each a shot from ending it. Hasek and Arturs Irbe were the stars.

In the third overtime, a graphic of the longest games in Stanley Cup Finals history flashed on the screen of the ABC broadcast. Game 3 was clocked at 114:30, third-longest in history.

"That's a record I really have no interest in breaking," play-by-play announce Gary Thorne joked. Analyst Bill Clement chuckled.

Just 17 seconds later, the game was over.

Larionov banged the puck up the ice through the neutral zone. Lidstrom fetched it and drew the defense of Marek Malik. Larionov hustled to trail Lidstrom and pick up the loose puck. On a 2-on-1 rush, he cut to the middle of the ice and waited out both a diving Bates Battaglia and Irbe. Mathieu Dandenault had net-front presence, and Larionov roofed the puck over Irbe's outstretched glove.

114:47, still the third-longest game in Stanley Cup Final history, trailing the longest by only 26 seconds.

Win Game 3, win the Cup?

The Red Wings did. Whether the same would have been true for the Canes we will never know, but there's a strong argument to be made.

Alas, the Canes hoisted the franchise's first Stanley Cup just four years later.