Hurricanes Make a Startling Recovery

Dwayne Roloson’s season ended Monday at the RBC Center when he severely sprained his right knee at the bottom of a goalmouth pileup in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals. The Edmonton Oilers were left to hope that their title prospects weren’t as badly damaged by the same unkind twist of fate.

Backup goalie Ty Conklin, summoned with 5 minutes 54 seconds left in the third period, made a bad pass to teammate Jason Smith behind the net and couldn’t recover, allowing Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour to tuck the puck into an open net with 31.1 seconds to play and give the Hurricanes a stunning 5-4 victory. It was a startling moment in a game studded with surprises, such as the first successful penalty shot in a Cup final -- by Edmonton’s Chris Pronger in the second period -- and a three-goal Carolina comeback that matched the biggest ever in the finals.

“I’m almost confused what to feel, honestly,” Hurricanes Coach Peter Laviolette said.

Conklin felt only contrition after he didn’t get enough oomph on an attempted backpass to Smith. Brind’Amour pounced on the unexpected gift and tapped it home for his second goal of the game, setting off eardrum-shattering roars from the crowd of 18,797.

“I just kind of froze with the puck a little bit,” said Conklin, who had last played April 17 and will now vie with Jussi Markkanen for the starting job. “It’s not a play I’d normally make.

“It’s a tough way to end a game.”

It ended with a loss for Edmonton mainly because Carolina rookie goalie Cam Ward instinctively thrust out his glove to stop Shawn Horcoff from deep on the right side with five seconds left in the third period, easily the most spectacular of his 34 saves. “Pure desperation,” the 22-year-old said.

Desperation is a good word to describe the Oilers’ predicament without the goalie who carried them to upsets of Detroit, San Jose and the Mighty Ducks. Roloson had started every postseason game, while Conklin and Markkanen alternated as the backup.

“He’s been our backbone for the whole playoffs,” said Oilers defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who inadvertently caused the injury when he pushed Carolina winger Andrew Ladd, and Ladd fell onto Roloson.

“It’s not something you want to have happen, but we’ve got lots of depth up and down this team.”

They used that depth to good advantage to build a 3-0 lead late in the second period.

Fernando Pisani converted a rebound at 8:18 of the first period, Pronger converted his first career penalty shot on a chance awarded to the Oilers at 10:36 of the second period, after Carolina defenseman Niclas Wallin closed his hand on the puck in the crease, and Ethan Moreau’s long shot caromed off Carolina’s Aaron Ward and into the net at 16:23. The fans were about to turn against their favorite sons, but Brind’Amour drew them back in when he scored on a rebound from the doorstep at 17:17

“We played a terrible two periods,” said winger Ray Whitney, who brought the Hurricanes within a goal at 1:40 of the third.

Carolina tied it at 5:09 of the third, when Whitney scored off a rebound, and pulled ahead on Justin Williams’ short-handed breakaway at 10:02. The Oilers matched that during a power play, on a backhander by Ales Hemsky at 13:31, but Roloson was injured less than a minute later and their spirits sagged.

“The disappointing thing is we didn’t manage our game well mentally,” Oilers Coach Craig MacTavish said.

Now, they’re left to replace the one player who had become irreplaceable. If there’s any consolation for the Oilers, it’s that Carolina won the opener of the 2002 Cup finals against Detroit but lost the next four games.

“It’s adversity, but we’ve got to stay positive,” center Jarret Stoll said. “We had a good start coming off a long break, but we can’t let them back in the game like we did. I think we learned from this.

“We’re a strong group of guys and we’ve done things the hard way all year. We’ve got guys in here that can do it.”