NHL

Hurricanes capture first Stanley Cup

Carolina strikes early, holds on for 3-1 victory over Edmonton in Game 7

Edmonton Oilers v Carolina Hurricanes: Game 7

Grant Halverson / Getty Images

Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour lifts the Stanley Cup after the Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup by defeating Edmonton 3-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals Monday.

It wasn’t enough.

“It’s just a matter of a few bounces and that’s the difference today,” Markkanen said. “They were just a little bit better.”

The series looked as if it would be a rout when Carolina rallied from a three-goal deficit to win Game 1 and blew out the Oilers 5-0 in Game 2. The Oilers also had to cope with the loss of playoff star Dwayne Roloson, who had played every minute of the postseason in goal until he went out with a knee injury in the opener.

But, led by Markkanen and Pisani, the Oilers rebounded from a 3-1 deficit. They pulled out an overtime win in Carolina — with the cup somewhere in the bowels of the RBC Center, waiting to be handed out if the Hurricanes won.

Edmonton returned home and blew out Carolina 4-0 in Game 6.

That’s where the comeback ended. Brind’Amour made sure of that, urging on his teammates to finish what they started.

Carolina Hurricanes Ward celebrates his goal against Edmonton Oilers during Game 7 of Stanley Cup Finals in Raleigh

Mike Blake / Reuters

Carolina's Aaron Ward celebrates the first goal of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals against Edmonton on Monday.

“He’s the leader of this team,” Cam Ward said. “Once again, he came up huge for us.”

Right from the start, Carolina seized the momentum with the sort of energy and passion that had been missing since Game 5.

Erik Cole delivered a big hit at center ice to force Edmonton into a turnover, and Matt Cullen took off the other way with the puck. He swept in on Markkanen, who made a good save off his chest.

But Mark Recchi, another member of the 30-something club, passed out from behind the net and the puck ricocheted to Aaron Ward moving in from the point. He beat the screened Markkanen with a slap shot through half-dozen players milling about in front of the goal.

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It was the Hurricanes’ first score in 95:01, since the second period of Game 5.

Carolina thought it had another goal in the final seconds of the period when Craig Adams backhanded a bouncing puck off and over Markkanen, who lost sight of it flipping toward the net. Defenseman Steve Staios dove into the net and touched it with his right glove, enough to stop play on a delayed penalty call even though the puck appeared to cross the line with 4.1 seconds left.

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Carolina finally made it 2-0 with just over four minutes gone in the second. Kaberle fired a slap shot over a diving Edmonton defenseman Jason Smith, whose sweater appeared to catch part of the puck and cause it to dip under Markkanen’s left pad when he had his glove out to make the save.

Notes: It was the first time that three straight Stanley Cup finals have gone to Game 7. ... Bill McCreary and Brad Watson were picked as the referees, working their second game in a row. This was the 11th straight finals appearance for McCreary.

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