Markkanen was Edmonton’s No. 1 goalie early in the season, winning five straight games at one point. But his erratic play caused MacTavish to juggle three goalies in a desperate attempt to find a go-to starter. When that didn’t work, the Oilers were forced to give up a No. 1 pick at the trade deadline to acquire Roloson from Minnesota.

Roloson started 19 straight games to help the Oilers sneak into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.

All Markkanen did was sit around. In that last appearance on the first day of March, he gave up three goals on 10 shots in a loss to lowly St. Louis. The line the rest of the way: 12 games as the backup, 11 games in which he didn’t even dress, zero minutes played.

It was more of the same in the playoffs. Roloson played every minute in three straight upsets over higher-ranked teams, making Edmonton the first eighth-seeded team to reach the finals under the current format.

But when Roloson went down, Markkanen was ready.

“He continued to work hard in practice. He continued to get better every day,” teammate Chris Pronger said. “The way he handled the tough times showed his character. You have to be ready because you never know what’s going to happen in the playoffs.”

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Markkanen has looked vulnerable at times, especially on his frequent trips away from the net to handle the puck. The Hurricanes want to create more havoc around him.

“He does like to come out of the net a lot,” said Eric Staal, Carolina’s star center. “If we can get some pressure on him, hopefully he’ll cough the puck up and make some mistakes.”

Notes: As expected, Carolina coach Peter Laviolette had nothing to say about the status of C Doug Weight or D Aaron Ward, both hurt in Game 5. Weight went off favoring his right shoulder after Pronger and Raffi Torres sandwiched him on a check early in the third period. Ward sustained a vague “upper-body” injury in the second period and took a slap shot off his skate in the third. “I have no update on them,” said Laviolette, always tightlipped about injuries. ... The children’s show “Dora The Explorer” was supposed to be held at Rexall Place this weekend. When the playoff schedule came out, Dora and her monkey sidekick, Boots, were bumped to a smaller Edmonton arena, the Northlands AgriCom.

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