The Carolina Hurricanes made history on Saturday by becoming the first team under the current Stanley Cup Playoff format to sweep its first two series with a 3-2 overtime win in Game 4 over the Philadelphia Flyers.
The second line of Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake was excellent yet again, providing all of Carolina’s scoring in the winning effort.
With two goals in the game giving him four in eight games in the playoffs, it’s easy to land on Blake as the Hurricanes’ player of the game in their
eighth straight playoff win.
With the Flyers ahead 1-0 in the second period and the Hurricanes unable to find the back of the net on multiple power play opportunities, Blake finally broke the seal when he flung one on the net that found its way on with a bounce off Jamie Drysdale’s pants.
Early in the third, Blake picked up his second point of the night on a secondary assist on Logan Stankoven’s tie-breaking goal after he fed Taylor Hall in the neutral zone. Hall took the puck over the blue line, sped past rookie defenseman Oliver Bonk, and found a lane to deliver a perfect pass to Stankoven for his seventh of the playoffs.
The Flyers tied the game and forced overtime, but Carolina would not be denied. Once again, Hall gained the zone with speed down the left wing, and that combined with a strong center lane drive from Stankoven pushed the Philadelphia defense back.
Hall took advantage of that space by slipping a pass to Blake, who had plenty of time and space to load up a shot, and though he found Dan Vladar’s glove, the Czech goalie could not hang on, as the puck went up into the air and landed behind the goal line for the winning blow.
