LAS VEGAS — Vegas Golden Knights coach John Tortorella didn’t mince words when it came to his team’s defense on the Hurricanes’ 37-year-old captain Jordan Staal during Carolina’s 5-3 win on Tuesday in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LAS VEGAS —<\/strong> The pass came across the low slot slowly, like a change-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan Staal\u00a0had to adjust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Carolina Hurricanes captain twisted and turned, trying to get his forehand on the puck, failing, flailing. His feet tangled, and he started to fall, fading away from the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, he reached out and whacked the puck with his backhand, and it fluttered past the glove of the goalie diving across the crease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, Staal wasn\u2019t sure it had gone in. But then he heard the crowd go quiet and his teammates yelling. Flat on his stomach, he put his face down on the ice and shook his fists in celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, man,\u201d Staal said. \u201cI was in my own world. It was an incredible moment, obviously, and just let a big yell go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staal had scored his second goal of the night and fifth of the Stanley Cup Final, and it held up as the winning goal in\u00a0a 5-3 victory\u00a0against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI almost missed the pass, because it was kind of rolling, and then I saw him falling in slow motion,\u201d said forward\u00a0Nikolaj Ehlers, who earned the primary assist on the play. \u201cAnd, I mean, at the time, you\u2019re not laughing. But after it went in, I was laughing pretty hard and celebrating. That was impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staal has been so impressive in this series that he has put himself into the conversation for the Conn Smythe Trophy, which goes to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 37-year-old is trying to follow in the footsteps of his brother\u00a0Eric, who won the Cup with Carolina in 2006, and to win the Cup for the first time himself since he did it with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, a 17-year gap that would be the longest in NHL history for a player between championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has spent 14 seasons with the Hurricanes building toward this opportunity, missing the playoffs the first six seasons, making the playoffs each of the past eight seasons but losing in the Eastern Conference Final three times. He doesn\u2019t want to waste it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s a dog, like, if I\u2019m going to be honest,\u201d teammate\u00a0Jackson Blake\u00a0said. \u201cHe does everything. I just think it\u2019s how bad he wants to win. We all want to win so bad, but he\u2019s playing like it\u2019s his last games right now. That\u2019s how good he\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staal is best known as a defensive center. He had two goals in 13 games entering the Cup Final while taking on tough matchups. But now he has seven goals in the playoffs, a new NHL career high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, and has great hands. That has come in handy against the Golden Knights, who have a big, physical defense corps and are known for how well they defend the netfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve been telling the guys to get to the hoop for I don\u2019t know how long, years, so good things happen around there,\u201d Staal said. \u201cEspecially the way (the Golden Knights) play, there\u2019s opportunity to get there, and you just need a bounce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staal banged in a loose puck on the power play at 12:48 of the first period, giving the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead. He became the first player to score in each of the first four games of a Cup Final since\u00a0Mike Bossy\u00a0did it for the New York Islanders against the Vancouver Canucks in 1982, and he became the second player 37 or older to score at least four goals in the Cup Final.\u00a0Brad Marchand\u00a0was 37 when he had six goals for the Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s killing us in the front of the net, Staal,\u201d Vegas coach John Tortorella said. \u201c\u2026 He\u2019s a big man. He\u2019s a good player. That\u2019s where he lives. We got to do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the Golden Knights came back to tie it 3-3, Staal struck again to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead at 6:32 of the third period. He became the third-oldest player with a multigoal game in the Cup Final. Mark Recchi was 43 when he scored twice in Game 3 for the Boston Bruins against the Canucks in 2011. Igor Larionov was 41 when he scored twice in Game 3 for the Detroit Red Wings against the Hurricanes in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good time to get hot,\u201d Staal said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question. I just want to contribute any way I can, and the puck\u2019s going in for me, and I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Game 5 is at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s been our leader and our bus driver for sure,\u201d teammate\u00a0Logan Stankoven\u00a0said. \u201cThat fourth goal for us was incredible. I don\u2019t know how he found a way to put that in. Yeah, he just does all the little things right, and we\u2019re in a position like this because of him, so we\u2019re going to need him to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LAS VEGAS — Vegas Golden Knights coach John Tortorella didn’t mince words when it came to his team’s defense on the Hurricanes’ 37-year-old captain Jordan Staal during Carolina’s 5-3 win on Tuesday in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. LAS VEGAS — The pass came across the low slot slowly, like a change-up. Jordan Staal\u00a0had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415833,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415832\/revisions\/415833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}