RALEIGH, N.C. — Tomas Hertl had chances. Oh boy did he have chances.
On 5-on-5. On the power play. He was getting great opportunities to be the star of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Tuesday night. But he was unable to finish those opportunities.
The hockey gods must’ve been watching. Because with time running down in the third period and overtime looming, Hertl got one more chance. This time, he didn’t waste it, beating Frederik Andersen from the slot with 3:24 remaining and giving the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 lead at the Lenovo Center and eventually, the win to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Hertl the hero.
“I was just trying to get open,” Hertl said of the play that gave the Knights the Game 1 win. “I won’t say it’s an easy shot but I didn’t give the goalie time to move.”
The man who went 29 straight games without scoring from early March well into April never gave up on himself. Neither did his coach as John Tortorella kept Hertl in the lineup and he has eventually earned his keep. Moving from center to wing on the third line with Colton Sissons and Mark Stone, Hertl has four goals and eight assists in the playoffs.
“It wasn’t like I wasn’t getting chances,” Hertl said of his early struggles. “But I just kept shooting and got a lucky bounce and it got me going.
“I probably could have shot a couple more times (Tuesday) but I was looking for my teammates. Hopefully, you guys won’t ask me about the slump anymore.”
Tortorella said he was willing to stick it out with Hertl longer than he might with a less experienced or accomplished player.
“We gave Tommy more time but time was getting short,” Tortorella said. “But once he scored (against Anaheim in Game 4), he’s come through and given us consistent minutes. He never stopped working on his game. It’s just great timing.”
Tortorella always trusts his veterans. He has especially done so with the Golden Knights. And they’ve given him little reason not to. Even down 2-0 to Nik Ehlers and the Canes and the Lenovo Center sellout crowd of 18,738 in a frenzy, the Knights kept their composure, scored three unanswered goals from Shea Theodore, Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson to take a 3-2 lead.
And even when Jordan Staal tied it for Carolina, there was never any panic. Brett Howden, the NHL’s top goal-scorer in the postseason, notched his 11th of the playoffs to give Vegas a 4-3 lead.
“They’re a calm group,” Tortorella said of the Knights. “They’ve won before. The foundation, the guts of our team, they’ve been through it. They don’t panic. They just play.”
Shayne Gostisbehere brought the Canes even again, 4-4. But all it did was set the stage for Hertl to deliver one of the biggest goals of his hockey life.
“It’s always great when you can score and help your team win,” he said.
And while the Knights and their fans were celebrating Hertl, Howden was nearly as important.
He talks self-depreciately about being in the right place at the right time. Tuesday, he was definitely in the right place at the right time, which means he was in front of Andersen.
Howden redirected Theodore’s shot 1:21 into the third period which at the time gave the Knights the lead back in what had become a somewhat wild, see-saw affair. For Howden, this is the kind of run players only dream about having. He continues to give the Knights quality minutes each night, the 11 goals notwithstanding.
“He does things the right way,” Totorella said of Howden.
You take a beating when you’re trying to get to the front of the net. It’s hard work and not everyone is cut out for it. But Howden has made his way into those dirty areas of the ice where only the strong survive.
Hertl also pays a similar price, both in front and behind the opponent’s net. Things tend to get physical and you have to be tough, both mentally and physically.
And on a night where neither team’s goaltender was particularly sharp over 60 minutes, the Knights did what the Canadiens, Flyers and senators couldn’t do, and that was make Andersen work in the Carolina net. They had just four first-period shots and it appeared the Hurricanes’ now-famous shot suppression tactics were going to carry the day.
But the Knights figured out how to get some pressure on Andersen and would finish Game 1 with 23 shots, while Carter Hart settled in and stopped 23 of the 27 he faced.That would be enough to get the win.
“We just needed to be patient,” Tortorella said. “If you get antsy against that team, they’re going to capitalize. So there were some lessons we learned from this game.”
McNabb, who had three assists in Game 1, said one of the biggest lessons learned was dealing with Carolina’s speed and quickness.
“We now know how hard they come at you,” McNabb said. “I thought once we adjusted to their speed we were all right.”
For the Hurricanes, who lost for only the second time in the postseason, they know they’re in a series. They’ve lost home-ice advantage for now and if Vegas can win out at T-Mobile Arena, they’ll be hoisting the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years.
That’s the easy math. The hard part will be doing it. And don’t be surprised if Vegas uses the same script it followed in Colorado during the Western Conference Final where it won Game 1 in Ball Arena and weren’t satisfied. The Knights would take Game 2 and go on to sweep the Avalanche.
“We want to keep the momentum going,” Tortorella said of the approach to Game 2 on Thursday.
But this night belonged to the veterans, the guys who have been through the battles over the years and knew how to find a way to stay in the fight long enough to prevail. Guys like Theodore, who had a goal and two assists, Karlsson, Howden, and, of course, Hertl.
And if we’ve learned anything about this team watching it throughout the season, playing from behind is not a problem. It’s almost as if they enjoy the challenge, like putting a puzzle together and solving it.
“It’s a find-a-way league and we found a way tonight,” Tortorella said.
Tuesday, they managed to figure it out just in time.