Golden Knights moving forward after letting Game 2 of Cup Final slip away

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Mark Stone could only shrug his shoulders at the opportunity lost.

For the first 50 minutes of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights appeared to be en route to taking a stranglehold in their attempt to win a second championship in four seasons.

They held a 2-0 lead over the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Thursday thanks to a pair of goals from Brett Howden. Hold on for the win, and the Golden Knights would earn their eighth consecutive victory, including fifth on the road, and take a commanding 2-0 advantage with the best-of-7 series shifting back to Las Vegas for Games 3 and 4.

Control of the series was in their collective hands.

Until it wasn’t.

In what turned out to be a chaotic third period, the Hurricanes exploded for three goals in a 5:05 span to take a 3-2 lead, only to have Stone tie the game for Vegas with 1:21 left. However, Seth Jarvis jammed the dagger into the visitors at 3:56 of overtime with a power-play goal to give Carolina a 4-3 victory.

Now the series shifts back to Sin City for Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET: ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC) tied 1-1.

Simply put, it’s anyone’s game again.

And for Vegas, the commiseration of what could have been.

“I mean, obviously you would like to get two here, but that’s the nature of the game,” Stone said matter-of-factly. “They’ve got a good team, so we’ll regroup and get on a plane and be dialed in for Game 3.”

When asked what happened in the final 10 minutes of the third, Stone needed a few seconds to formulate an explanation.

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “There were a couple of turnovers that led to their goal. We battled back, found some adversity with the disallowed goal, and battled back.

“We’ll be ready.”

The disallowed goal Stone was referring to came at the 15:00 mark of the third, when Ivan Barbashev batted the puck under a prone Frederik Andersen following a crazy wraparound scramble. The Golden Knights then lost their challenge to have the call of goaltender interference overturned, and Jordan Staal scored on the ensuing power play 25 seconds later to put the Hurricanes up 3-2.

Stone, as mentioned, would score the equalizer, but it was all for naught when Jarvis ended the game.

Golden Knights coach John Tortorella obviously felt there was no foul on the play and said he would have made the challenge 10 times out of 10. But that, too, is all for naught now.

All that matters at this point is moving forward.

To that end, the Golden Knights’ 5-4 win in Game 1 means they’ve snatched home-ice advantage from Carolina. Now they have to make it pay off.

“I mean, look, we're in the Stanley Cup Final,” forward Mitch Marner said. “This was never going to be easy.

“We've got to be a little smarter with some of our pucks here. Sometimes that's how the game goes. I liked how we battled back, got back in the game, got into overtime, and like I said, just got to keep advancing pucks.”

The disallowed goal wasn’t the only adversity the Golden Knights suffered on this night. Neither was the overtime defeat.

Their biggest loss may have come at 10:52 of the first period, when Brayden McNabb took a Nikolaj Ehlers slap shot to the face and immediately raced to the dressing room. Tortorella had no update on his veteran defenseman, who did not return to the game.

McNabb’s absence left Vegas with just five defensemen for the final 2 1/2 periods of regulation plus overtime.

“I mean, that’s playoff hockey. We’re in the Stanley Cup Final," Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin said. "You lose the guy so everyone’s got to dig in and do their job.

“It’s adversity, right? And we’ve got a good group. We’re positive in here. We’re fine. We’re excited to be going home.”

Kaedan Korczak, who has played in 12 games this postseason but has been as a healthy scratch for the first two games of the Cup Final, is the leading candidate to step into the lineup for Game 3 if McNabb can’t go.

Whatever the case, Tortorella continues to have complete faith in this team that he’s only coached for two months, having replaced Bruce Cassidy on March 29.

“We have a good team. A very good team,” Tortorella said in his postgame press conference that lasted just 1:51.

The job at hand is obvious. No further words needed.