Stanley Cup Final blog: Jordan Martinook

Carolina Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2026 Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access. In his third entry, Martinook discusses the roller-coaster ride that was the 4-3 overtime win by the Hurricanes against the Golden Knights in Game 2 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday. Carolina was down 2-0 in the third period, but then scored three goals in the span of 5:05 to take a 3-2 lead. Vegas forward Mark Stone tied it 3-3 with 81 seconds remaining in regulation, but Seth Jarvis won it at 3:56 on the power play in a wild, comeback victory that sends the series to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas even at 1-1 for Game 3 on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

I think for 45 minutes of that game, we were trying to figure out how to get something to go our way. Then we had a shift in the O-zone in the middle of the period and we were like, OK, this is what we are going to do, we are going to do that one line after another, and then we did. Then, Logan Stankoven’s line gets it going, and the building got going, and the emotions were there. It was on and it was a lot of fun.

I think that was the best game of, OK maybe it’s not going our way, but if we just stick with what we need to do, we can turn it. I think on the bench, you are obviously a little uneasy, but I think everyone still had a lot of confidence that we could turn it around and I am glad we did.

Then, we give up the goal to Stone (at the end of the third period) and it stinks because you want to lock that down. It just shows the resiliency of our team. That’s a kick in the you-know-what. To be able to regroup in the overtime, and then come back out and get it done is amazing. It felt like we put a few good shifts together in overtime and then 'Jordo' draws that penalty and the power play comes through. Big, big goal.

We were calm in the intermission before overtime. The message was to just continue what made us successful in the second half of the third. We felt like our forecheck got going, we were turning some pucks over and creating our chances that way. Obviously, when (Vegas) lost defenseman Brayden McNabb, when he got hit by the shot in the first, they were starting to get a little gassed, and you want to just keep making them work and I feel like we did that for the most part.

The Stankoven goal that got us going was huge for us, but that is who he is. He wins a battle off the face-off and then wraps it around. 'Stanky' is just a tenacious, tenacious player and that epitomizes who he is.

Then, the power play came through for us. First 'Jordo,' and then 'Jarvy' with the winner. Those were two massive goals. We needed to win this game. That’s a massive goal and the power play came up huge for us.  

'Jordo' has been doing this all season for us, so it’s not surprising. He was all over this game and it just shows you what this means to him. He’s incredible and I love being able to watch him do his thing. He’s our leader and it is fun following him.

I don’t know what the odds would have been had we lost this game, but probably not very good. Now, we split and it’s our job to go there and win a game, win both.