Ian Cole played the role of hero as he scored 3:12 into overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at PNC Arena.
The former Pittsburgh defenseman scored on a wrist shot that deflected off of New York defenseman Ryan Lindgren from above the right faceoff circle.
"[Hurricanes defenseman Brendan Smith] shot it and it bounced right to me", he said. "I was looking to pass it to someone, and no one was really anywhere dangerous.
"I was like, i'll guess i'll throw it on net and see what happens. Hockey is a game of weird bounces, and it just happened to go in. Not the prettiest, but we'll take it."
Sebastian Aho scored the other Carolina goal and Antti Raanta made 27 saves.
Filip Chytl scored the New York goal while Shesterkin made 24 saves for New York.
Game 2 is Friday night in Raleigh.
Story of the game
After a turnover by Hurricanes defenseman Tony Deangelo turned the puck over in the neutral zone, Alexis Lafreniere fed Chytl for a one-timer and he beat Raanta from the right hash marks.
Raanta kept it a one-goal game when he stopped Ryan Strome cutting to the net before making the save on Chytil's one-timer with his left skate at the right post.
Having never started a playoff game before this season, he is now 4-2 with a 2.13 goals against average and .933 save percentage in seven starts.
"When you haven't got the chance to play these [games], you always question yourself like, what if I get the chance to play?", he said. "It's obviously been a lot of fun to play.
"Now the stakes are getting higher and higher all the time, but you're just trusting your own thing."
"When you haven't got the chance to play these [games], you always question yourself like, what if I get the chance to play?", he said. "It's obviously been a lot of fun to play.
It appeared the Rangers would ride Chytl's goal to an impressive victory, especially after Nino Neidereitter hit the crossbar on a breakaway and Aho did the same with 2:47 left.
But 14 seconds later, he tied things up. After Shesterkin stopped him cutting to the net on a backhand, he tapped in his own rebound at the right post.
"I don't think we got it deep enough", New York forward Mika Zibanejad said. "We got it out of our zone, but they regrouped pretty fast. They're a quick team.
"That's a really good team we're playing. Let's not forget about that. They got their push and got their crowd into it and got some momentum, and obviously the goal."
Carolina outshot the Rangers 7-0 in the first half of the third and 10-4 overall.
"We raised the level of our game, the intensity, and played the game with a little more desperation", said Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We were lacking a little of that for two periods. It doesn't always work out, but we had a real good third period, obviously."
That led to overtime and Cole's heroics.
"Definitely a tough loss", Rangers head coach Gerrard Gallant said. "We've been there, done that. We've got to battle back. I was really happy with our game.
"[Carolina] put on a big push on in the third period the first ten minutes, and we weathered that storm. But the first two periods were perfect hockey for us. I thought it was our best game of the year, I really did."