Blake's clutch overtime goal sealed a comeback win. Hear from the Hurricanes stars on their thrilling victory over the Rangers.
The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime Monday night at Lenovo Center.
Despite trailing 1-0 and 2-1 at different points, the Canes just kept pushing, eventually forcing overtime where Jackson Blake netted the game-winner.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Blake, Jordan Martinook and Sebastian Aho spoke with the media. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On Jackson Blake providing net-front traffic even after taking a shot to the midsection: You're on the power play, so you're going to try and stay out. That's just the nature of it. He was again, good. Obviously big on that goal. I thought everybody played really well tonight. It was just one of those games where the bounces weren't going our way and then they did, finally. They got theirs on a bounce... it was funny, it was the whole game, we give up the chances, a couple of breakaways. The first shift of the game was a bad bounce. Bus didn't have a lot of work, but those were critical saves in the first shift of the game, first couple of shifts. I thought he was good. Obviously their goalie was lights out.
On Blake bouncing back from his tough outing before the break: Again, you're going to have ups and downs as a player in your career, but especially a young guy, so it's about what you take from it. The good and the bad and he's done that, you can see.
On the Jordan Staal line: They had the one bad bounce for the second goal against. Bounces off three people and goes in the net and so you're just like, 'Okay.' Then they get us the big one to get us into overtime. Three guys that just do it right.
On Eric Robinson getting the bump up to the top line in the third period: Speed and size. And he's just effective. I don't know how else to say it. Obviously he's kind of been scoring some goals lately too. Just thought maybe they could use a little more of that size to just create a little more energy. That was about it.
On Sebastian Aho shooting more tonight: On the power play, for sure. I thought he had a tough matchup with Trocheck too on the faceoffs, but I thought he did a really nice job. It's a very, very crucial part of the game if you're always starting without the puck. It felt like he was winning some faceoffs. That kind of evened that out and then a shot-first mentality paid off.
On Logan Stankoven moving back to winger: Well we're missing Jarvy. He's obviously a very, very talented player, Stanker, and so it makes sense to put him in that spot somewhere. We were obviously shuffling lines, all the time you end up doing that, but I see him as ending up being a center here when everyone gets healthy.
On going with a four-forward power play in OT: Well you're missing Ghost, so you put those guys out there, I feel our best offensive guys, and you're not really worried about giving up one. Like, you have to just go for it. A little new to them, because we hadn't really practiced that, but thankfully we had a couple of timeouts in that segment to kind of restructure it a little bit and then you just let the talent take over and that's basically what happened.
On none of the power play units tonight really having had any time together: Maybe that's the key, right?
Jackson Blake
On if the key to the game was just staying patient against a good goaltender: Yeah. I remember last game, I think I had like seven shots maybe? Just a lot of grade-As and he's just so good. So it was just about sticking with it. I had some great chances tonight. I try not to get frustrated with them because it's a long game and you're always going to miss some grade-As every once in a while. But I got a lucky one on him in overtime and it feels good.
On if he thought about heading off after taking a shot to the midsection right before his eventual winner: No, I didn't think about hopping back over the boards in overtime there. That one definitely stung a little bit. Fly apologized right after the game and I said, 'No worries. Not your fault. I pretty much got in your way of your shot.' Yeah, I mean, I was playing net front, so it stung, but I just had to go right back to the net front there."
On how fast does the pain face once the adrenaline kicks in: The first five seconds when the puck went out and they were coming back, I was kind of hustling, trying my best to get to the blueline and stay onsides. Right when I got back in front of the net there, you don't even feel it, especially when you score. You don't really feel it anymore.
On Brandon Bussi making big saves for the team: That's just who Bus is. He's done that all year for us. So many big saves too. Like breakaways, 2-on-1s and all these saves. I honestly don't know how he does it. Confidence is big to have in your goalie, all of our goalies, but especially when he's in the net, we have a lot of confidence right now.
On Jordan Staal's line getting the team back into the game: That's what they do. That's why Roddy loves them so much. They're always clawing and doing it right and playing the way that we want to play. That's just a prime example of getting rewarded for going to the right spot. I don't even know if he knew he scored, but just being in the right area, that's what happens and that's what they do best. I would not want to play against that line, that's for sure.
Jordan Martinook
On his line: I felt like in the second, we couldn't really get anything going. Didn't really get much of a forecheck and then in the third, it was just a weird period. It felt like we didn't even really get out there that much and then Will did a great job of getting on the wall there, keeping it in and then obviously when you're playing Shesterkin, you need to get in front of him. Look at all three goals we scored, it's traffic in front of him. He's one of the best in the league. Obviously on Fishy's goal, Svech is there and then on mine, I was just getting in front of him and hoping it finds a way in and then Blaker, a big goal at the end there.
On if he knows which part of him his goal went in off of: I didn't even know. They just came and said, 'Atta, boy!' I didn't even know it hit me. I'll take it.
On the team: Obviously I felt like that second goal was one me. I just lose my guy and he taps it in. That's something that I need to be better at and then just as a group, I felt like we, even at the start of the third, we were trying to get pucks to the net, but we weren't getting a ton of action and then probably about the 12 minute mark, it flipped and we were getting a lot of action, had a couple of good shifts down there. Then when we tied it up, I felt like it was a good period by both teams. Good game, glad we came out with two points.
Sebastian Aho
On the power play starting to connect more often: Obviously it's kind of day-by-day. You go through streaks, but obviously the work never stops. You try to score basically on every power play and obviously there's killers that try to not let us score, but obviously it helps when you score a few and it kind of starts clicking and you start feeling yourself a little bit. You're not forcing the plays and you're making the right decisions and that kind of has been the case as of late. We just have to keep going with this momentum.
On if he saw Shesterkin leaning the opposite way on his goal: No, not really. I'm just trying to find a lane and their D kind of stepped on me, so I couldn't shoot shortside because of that. Svechy did a great job of taking away his eyes. He didn't see much on that shot, but I don't really watch the goalie. I'm trying to more so look for the open lane.
On Jackson Blake's net-front presence: That's the guy who a lot of time scores the goals on the power play. He did a great job of being at the net and that got us the gam-winner, him tipping it in. Good job by him.
On Brandon Bussi: Pretty good, I'd say. He's been great. Obviously keeps giving us a chance to win hockey games and that's all you can ask for from a goalie. Goalies are like that. It's been a great ride, but obviously it's not just.. I see it's going to be a long time in this league. He's taking that next step and he's been really calm and collected in the big moments. Good for him.
On the team battling back after trailing heading into the third: We've been talking about it. It's kind of been our key for success in past years too. To kind of, up or down, keep working and keep being relentless. You can't really tell if we're up or down, we just keep coming and obviously we're a deep squad, we roll four lines and it's kind of how we want to do it. The last couple of games we've been able to do that. Up or down, we just keep going.
On Eric Robinson getting the bump up to his line: Great player. Works hard, smart and has a lot of speed and obviously he's scored as of late too. Like him a lot.
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