Marner among top performers for Golden Knights in Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final

LAS VEGAS -- Who played well in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final? Sometimes it’s easy to tell, sometimes it isn’t. NHL.com graded the players in the third game of the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, a 5-4 double overtime win by the Vegas Golden Knights against the Carolina Hurricanes. Vegas leads the series 2-1 and the team that wins Game 3 after a split in the first two games has a 77-percent rate of winning the series. 

Here are the things that stood out the most.

Honor roll

Andrei Svechnikov (Carolina Hurricanes): The forward scored on the power play with goalie Brandon Bussi pulled for an extra attacker with 1:42 remaining in the game to erase the four-goal lead Vegas had fashioned in the second period. It is the second straight game in which Carolina scored a power-play goal late in the third period. Jordan Staal scored with 4:35 remaining in Game 2 to give Carolina its first lead in a game it would win 4-3 in overtime on a power-play goal by Seth Jarvis. 

Mitch Marner (Vegas Golden Knights): What can’t the forward do this postseason? After scoring a natural hat trick in Game 3, Marner leads the postseason in points (28; 10 goals, 18 assists) and is the fourth player this postseason to reach double-digits in goals. Marner scored his three goals in a span of 6:10, surpassing the 6:21 record held for 69 years by Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens. Marner had a chance to make it 5-0 in the third period, but was stoned on a penalty shot by Bussi, who replaced Frederik Andersen to start the third period. Marner has the most points in a playoff season in Golden Knights history, surpassing Jack Eichel, who had 26 for Vegas when it won the Cup in 2023. 

Brayden McNabb (Vegas Golden Knights): The defenseman illustrated the meaning of hockey tough, playing 48 hours after his face stopped an 87-mph blast by Nikolaj Ehlers in the first period of Game 2. McNabb, sporting sutures around his nose and wearing a bird-cage mask, led the Golden Knights in ice time in the first period, playing 8:57. When he was introduced in the starting lineup, the roof was almost blown off the building here. He played 35:47, had two assists and was plus-3. 

Jordan Staal (Carolina Hurricanes): The captain scored on a deflection of a Jaccob Slavin shot at 7:42 of the third, the final goal in a three-goal onslaught in 39 seconds, a record for the fastest three goals in the Final. He also had the primary assist on the Svechnikov tying goal. Staal scored twice in the first 13 games of this postseason run but has one in each of the first three games of the Final.  He tied Brad Marchand of the Florida Panthers as the only players past their 37th birthday to score in the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final. 

Tomas Hertl (Vegas Golden Knights): The forward had no goals in the first nine games of the postseason. His third in the past five games – and his second of the Final – gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 10:26 of the second period. Ten seconds after Carolina took a penalty for too many men on the ice, Hertl took a pass from Eichel behind the net and slammed it home.  It was the first power-play goal in this series, in eight attempts, for the Golden Knights. Hertl also had an assist on the third goal by Marner.

Stock watch

Brandon Bussi: ⬆️ The Carolina goalie hadn’t played this postseason, but he was thrown into the breach in the third period for what most thought would be mop-up duty for Andersen. Instead, he stopped the first 18 shots he faced before allowing a bounce off the boards to beat him at 5:38 of double overtime. 

Vegas game presentation: ⬆️ The always stellar pregame show hit a new high. Mother Nature, in the form of a hurricane, had the Fortress under attack, levitating herself and the drummers on the ice high into the air. But the indefatigable Golden Knight held his ground valiantly against long odds and subdued the Hurricane, winning yet another pregame showdown and getting the T-Mobile crowd into a proper frame of mind to roar the home team to potential glory. 

Carolina’s video coaches: ⬆️ Vegas thought they had scored twice in the first four minutes of the second period. They thought wrong each time and the score remained 0-0. Mark Stone thought he had scored at 34 seconds, but Carolina challenged and it was overturned because Brett Howden, who set up the goal with an incisive seam pass, was offside by a step. At 4:00, Eichel scored in a scramble in front, sending the crowd into throes of ecstasy. Again, it was challenged, again it was overturned. Forward Ivan Barbashev’s hip had contacted the head of Andersen before the goal was scored. 

T-Mobile crowd: ⬆️ The Golden Knights crowd was special, but it hit a fever pitch in the second period as the home team appeared to put the game out of reach. Each time the deluge of hats after the Marner hat trick seemed to stop, new hats would flutter onto the ice. It took three false starts by the ice crew before play could resume. With a little less than three minutes remaining in the second, the crowd started a “We want the Cup” chant. The party continued throughout the third, even after Carolina scored three goals in 39 seconds to make it a one-goal game.  It didn’t even wane when double overtime was needed, supporting the Knights through it all.

Frederik Andersen: ⬇️ The Carolina goalie allowed four goals on 16 shots before being pulled during the second intermission, replaced by Bussi. Andersen allowed more than two goals once in his first 13 postseason starts but has allowed three or more in each game of this series. In the three games, his highest save percentage was .885 in Game 2.

What we learned

Hurricanes won’t go away

There is no way the Hurricanes should have been in this game in the third period after getting blitzed in the second. But this team doesn’t know when to quit. Bussi, thrown into the fire, stopped a penalty shot off the stick of the red-hot Marner and the rally was on. Carolina scored three goals in 39 seconds, on three consecutive shots, and made the third period far more interesting than it should have been. That was before Svechnikov scored on a 6-on-4 power play at 18:18 and sent it to overtime for the second straight contest. This after overcoming a 2-0 deficit in Game 2. 

Vegas brought the pain

It was clear from the beginning that Vegas wanted to get pucks deep and punish Carolina on the forecheck. They had 16 hits in the first period and 25 more in the second. They finished regulation with 54 hits. The Hurricanes had 33. Carolina forward William Carrier was injured in the second period. Defenseman Jalen Chatfield also went to the dressing room briefly in the first.