Hamilton’s third-period goal lifts Canes to 3-2 win over Bruins to even series
Dougie Hamilton had been thinking about it for months, sweating out workouts, aching to get back on the ice, wanting so much to play hockey again.
On Thursday, just when the Carolina Hurricanes needed it, Hamilton had that moment.
The Canes defenseman can hammer a shot as well as any D-man in the league. Against the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff series, he did just that, blistering one for the winning goal in a 3-2 victory in Toronto.
Credit Martin Necas with the assist. The rookie forward, a nonstop hustler, had two assists and gave the Canes a ton of energy in the game, and it was his pass to Hamilton that set up the bomb of a shot from the right circle at 8:30 of the third.
“It’s been a long time for me to play hockey, so I guess for seven months you’re thinking about that kind of stuff, playing a game, scoring a goal, and what it feels like,” Hamilton said, noting he also was thinking about his grandmother, Joan Hamilton, on her birthday and scored for her. “That’s what kind of fuels you when you’re in those tough moments. It feels great.”
Hamilton’s broken left fibula kept him out of the last 21 games of the regular season before the spread of the coronavirus forced the NHL to pause the season. The decision by the league to return to play allowed him to be fit and ready when the postseason training camp began last month in Raleigh, but he was injured again before the team came to Toronto.
Hamilton again was forced to watch as the Canes swept the New York Rangers in the qualifying round. He finally returned for Game 1 of the Boston series, against the team that once made him a first-round draft pick, but did not have a point in the double-overtime loss.
Hamilton’s shot decided a game that was chippy at times and again raised the ire of Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour. The Canes had a third-period goal waved off when it was ruled Teuvo Teravainen had incidental contact with goalie Tuukka Rask, and Brind’Amour then lost his coach’s challenge for a second straight game.
The first one resulted in some biting postgame comments by Brind’Amour about the refs and the NHL and a $25,000 fine from the league — a fine paid Thursday by team owner Tom Dundon. As for the second, Brind’Amour predictably refused to comment on the play or ruling after Thursday’s game.
But Brind’Amour liked the spunk and resiliency of his team. The Bruins twice scored on the power play — David Krejci in the first period and Brad Marchand in the last few seconds of the second — and there were other no-calls that angered Brind’Amour and the Canes.
Captain Jordan Staal had his helmet ripped off by defenseman Charlie McAvoy in the first period. No call was made and Staal only told that he was helmet-less and needed to leave the ice.
The Bruins did not have David Pastrnak, their leading scorer, in the lineup. Pastrnak apparently was injured when he jumped for joy when Patrice Bergeron scored the winning goal in double overtime in Game 1.
Brind’Amour, in turn, made a number of changes. Justin Williams, unfit to play in Game 1, was back in the lineup. Defensemen Sami Vatanen and Trevor van Riemsdyk played. Goalie James Reimer got the start, making 33 saves in outplaying Rask.
The Canes scored twice in 88 seconds in the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Teravainen zipped a shot past Rask on a power play, then Andrei Svechnikov beat Rask high to the blocker side off a nice Necas pass.
While Canes defenseman Haydn Fleury had the biggest hit of the game in the first period, Svechnikov’s hit on McAvoy in the second was an energizer. Svechnikov first took an elbow high, then slammed McAvoy into the boards.
“It’s a hard game. You have to play hard,” Svechnikov said.
To which Brind’Amour added, “He can dish it out as well as he can take it. I think he actually enjoys those challenges.”
Beating the Bruins has been a challenge for Carolina. There was the four-game sweep by the Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals last year. Boston shut out the Canes in the only regular-season game before the pause. Then there was Game 1 on Wednesday, when the Bruins again found a way to win.
But not Thursday. The Canes found a way.
“There were a lot of ups and down in that game for a lot of reasons,” Brind’Amour said. “We had our moments there where we were a little frustrated but the guys put it behind them. Tonight they weren’t going to be denied.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 10:54 PM with the headline "Hamilton’s third-period goal lifts Canes to 3-2 win over Bruins to even series."
