Martinook's amazing stop can't save Hurricanes from elimination in Game 6

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jordan Martinook stood at his locker, his back to everyone, his arms resting on the shelf, his head hung, lost in thought, lost in the could-have-been.

Incomprehensibly, the season was finished for the Carolina Hurricanes, victims of the Rally in Raleigh, a four-goal third period from the New York Rangers that fueled a 5-3 victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at PNC Arena on Thursday.

“We obviously felt great where we were going into the third,” Martinook said. “Knowing that we let it slip like that, that’s -- I don’t know -- going to eat you up. It’s going to eat it us up for a long time.”

The visitors booked passage to the Eastern Conference Final and a date against either the Florida Panthers or the Boston Bruins. Florida leads that best-of-7 series 3-2 with Game 6 in Boston on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, TruTV, TNT, SN1, SN, TVAS).

The Hurricanes, who were up 3-1 entering the third period, had visions of a winner-take-all Game 7 cruelly dashed in an onslaught of goals by Rangers forward Chris Kreider, who scored a natural hat trick in the span of 8:58.

Up to that point, the Hurricanes had everything going their way. They had won the previous two games to put the Rangers on the back foot and they pounced early in Game 6.

Carolina forward Martin Necas scored at 18:38 of the first period, and forward Seth Jarvis scored on the power play at 4:38 of the second for a 2-0 lead.

After Vincent Trocheck made it 2-1 at 5:29, Carolina forward Sebastian Aho scored on a breakaway at 9:23 of the second.

It appeared the Rangers had made it 3-2 with 6:55 left in the period when defenseman Ryan Lindgren powered his shot through goalie Frederik Andersen and the puck wobbled on its way toward the goal line, destined to pull New York within a goal.

Instead Martinook said no, sliding along the ice on his belly and pulling the puck off the goal line at the last possible second.

It was a stunning play.

“That was a big play by him, and it shows what makes him great, he never gives up and never quits on a play,” Aho said.

At the time, it seemed like a sign.

In a series that saw five of six games decided by one non-empty net goal, such a miraculous play to keep it a two-goal game surely showed the hockey gods had to be on the side of the Hurricanes.

Not quite.

Even after the Hurricanes came out on fire in the third period, dominating play early, a surprise loomed.

Martinook hit the crossbar on a one-timer, and forward Jake Guentzel later hit the near-side post on a snap shot from the face-off circle and watched helplessly as the puck bounced off the post, off goalie Igor Shesterkin and ping-ponged back toward the net, settling just outside the post.

Even after the Rangers made it 3-2, Jordan Staal had a chance to restore the two-goal lead, alone in front with the puck on his stick. Shesterkin attacked, lunging toward Staal as he shot, turning aside the high-danger chance for one of his 33 saves.

“Obviously, we get one of those, it probably changes the outcome of the game,” Martinook said.

Instead, the Rangers got the next goal, one that Andersen was not happy allowing.

Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad tried to score a short-side goal on a rush, but Andersen stopped it with his skate. Before he could get his glove on the puck, Kreider swung by and poked the puck in at 6:43 to make it 3-2.

“It definitely hurt,” Andersen said. “You don’t want to give them life. Obviously, I thought I had it covered, and I wasn’t able to get my glove down on it. Mistake. Tough timing for that.”

Kreider scored at 11:54, tipping a shot from Artemi Panarin off the shoulder of Andersen and in.

It was the first power-play goal for the Rangers since Game 2.

“Big power-play goal by them,” said Staal, who was in the penalty box after cross-checking Zibanejad.

The winner came at 15:41, Kreider finding space in front and banging home a pass from Lindgren from behind the net.

“You can’t give a team like that a goal, and I thought we gave them a couple,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s really not good. Then the momentum changed a little and we obviously took a penalty, and their top guys took over in the third once they got that one.”

Barclay Goodrow added an empty-net goal at 19:11, and all hope was lost for Carolina.

“We never know what opportunities we have to win [it all] and I thought we had one,” said Andersen, who made 19 saves. “You never know when you are going to get the next one, so it hurts a lot not to take advantage of it.”

Like Martinook said, the what-ifs were already starting as the reality set in that the series was complete, that there wasn’t another chance to stay alive.

That their opponents' hopes for a Stanley Cup remained alive while theirs were put on hold for another year, at least.

“It’s a special group in there,” Brind’Amour said. “This is a tough way to end a really good year. These guys played their butts off all year, but this is what you are going to remember, right? That’s the hard part.”