Carolina Hurricanes: Three Games that Saved the Season.

2. Game 72: Carolina Hurricanes vs Pittsburgh Penguins March 19, 2019

If you thought game five was an overtime thriller, let me tell you all about the time the Penguins marched into PNC and had all but won a game before it flew away from them. Honestly there cannot have been a better game played between these two clubs. It had it all, drama, tension, excitement, and a shootout win.

While the first game in this article was a barn burner, this one didn’t see the first goal of the game until almost halfway through the first period. It came off a wicked wrister from Brock McGinn.  There really wasn’t anything special about the goal other than the fact that it cracked open the scoring and the fact that it gave Carolina the lead.

But it was the shortest lead Carolina would enjoy. In only 38 seconds later the Penguins managed to tie the game. That wasn’t enough time for the in house legendary announcer H. Wade Minter to call the goal without having to immediately follow it up calling a goal that negated it. Both teams would end up going into the third even at one a piece.

The third period is where the theatrics really began. Shot after shot both Matt Murray and Petr Mrazek fought off making dazzling saves and pushing plays to go down both ends of the ice. It all came to a head when Pittsburgh took the lead with less than five minutes left to play. The clock ticked all the way down to two minutes before the heroics of, who else but Justin Williams:

Talk about right place at the right time, the Captain is clutch. there is no lie about that. Just how clutch, none of us really knew until that point. 72 games into the season and he was still dishing out goals at the final seconds of the game. Alex Ovechkin may have a powerplay office where he scores his heavy slappers, but Justin williams has his clutch office that earned him the moniker “Mr. Game Seven”.

Petr Mrazek was outstanding too. Without him the Carolina Hurricanes do not win this game. No other Hurricanes goalie from the last decade with the exception of a young Cam Ward wins this game. The Penguins demand a goalie that can keep them on their toes and Mrazek definitely qualifies. Shutting them out in the shootout was just icing on the cake.

This was the game that started an outstanding set of games that has most likely earned him the starting role during the postseason. The energy he brings to the rink and game each day was put on full display that night. From the dangerous poke check to the mandatory stick pump celebration. The fans ate it all up!

The Carolina Hurricanes went duck hunting after that game and brought in two points. None of that happens last year. And quite honestly without this crucial win, they might not have gone into the weekend and closed out the five game home stand with eight of the possible ten points.

Had they lost this game along with the Tampa game two days later they just might have collapsed in front of a home crowd. But they did not. They road that excellent clutch play though the rest of the home stand and to the Stanley Cup playoffs. That homestand ended in an equally spectacular game.