DETROIT - Fifty-eight seconds into overtime last night, any illusions anyone had that Carolina couldn't win in the Stanley Cup Finals evaporated. Jeff O'Neill threw the puck in front, and Ron Francis redirected it past Dominik Hasek, giving the Hurricanes a 3-2 victory in the series opener.
The Hurricanes improved to 7-1 in overtime; the Wings fell to 1-4.
Twice, the Wings took a lead. Twice, the Hurricanes came back. Sergei Fedorov scored on the power play, then Sean Hull scored on a two-man advantage. Kirk Maltby scored, then O'Neill responded. Hasek and Arturs Irbe each made 23 saves.
Forward Tomas Holmstrom and linemate Luc Robitaille generated a couple of scoring chances in the first period, and Holmstrom drew two penalties. During the second power play, he was largely responsible for the goal that gave the Wings a 1-0 lead.
Captain Steve Yzerman pinned his body against the right-wing boards, knocked down the puck and threw it at the net. Holmstrom, in front as usual, deflected it. Irbe stopped it but allowed a rebound to his left. Holmstrom backed in and, thanks at least in part to a shove by defenseman Aaron Ward, fell on top of Irbe. That allowed Fedorov to score at 15:21.
"Tomas did all the work," Fedorov said. "It was an empty net, pretty much."
About 4:10 into the second, forward Erik Cole came out of the box, took a pass and broke in on Hasek. He got off a weak shot because center Kris Draper hooked him, but Draper went off. The Hurricanes had a two-man advantage.
Hasek held the fort shortly afterward as O'Neill and center Rod Brind'Amour banged away. The crowd, which was relatively quiet, woke up. But at 3:30, Hill cashed in. Forward Sami Kapanen sent the puck from the right point to the left point, and Hill took a one-timer. The puck went past Hasek's glove and into the upper right corner. Hasek's shutout streak ended at 143 minutes, 29 seconds.
At 10:39, a couple of minutes after Hasek stopped center Josef Vasicek on a 2-on-1, Maltby gave the Wings a 2-1 lead. Off a faceoff to Irbe's left, Draper forechecked, and forward Darren McCarty threw the puck from the corner to the high slot. Maltby ripped a shot past Irbe's right side.
Hasek stopped an O'Neill shot from the slot with about 3:40 left in the period, but he couldn't stop O'Neill on a breakaway with 50 seconds left. With a quick pass up ice, Ward caught the Wings on a line change. O'Neill skated in and shot. Hasek stopped the puck, but he fell on his back, and the momentum of the play sent the puck sliding over the line. The goal was O'Neill's fifth in eight games.
After two periods, the score was tied, 2-2, and the shots were even, 20-20. The Hurricanes had confidence.
"We broke the Hasek jinx," Ward said. "We are worried about getting the puck behind him. We got two."
And in OT, Francis got the third.
Carolina 0 2 0 1 - 3
Detroit 1 1 0 0 - 2
First period - 1, Detroit, Fedorov 5 (Yzerman), 15:21 (pp). Penalties - Hedican, Car (high-sticking), 8:03; Robitaille, Det (tripping), 10:28; Hill, Car (tripping), 11:15; Wesley, Car (interference), 14:45. Second period - 2, Carolina, Hill 4 (Kapanen, Francis), 3:30 (pp). 3, Detroit, Maltby 2 (McCarty), 10:39. 4, Carolina, O'Neill 6 (Ward), 19:10. Penalties - Carolina bench, served by Cole (too many men), :34; Larionov, Det (high-sticking), 2:07; Draper, Det (hooking), 2:44; Svoboda, Car (high-sticking), 4:28; Wallin, Car (roughing), 7:41; Dandenault, Det (tripping), 12:12. Third period - None. Penalties - Devereaux, Det (holding stick), 5:49; Larionov, Det (high-sticking), 12:17; Cole, Car (hooking), 18:19. Overtime-5, Carolina, Francis 6 (O'Neill, Kapanen), :58. Penalties - None. Shots on goal - Carolina 7-13-5-1-26. Detroit 8-12-5-0-25. Power-play opportunities - Carolina 1 of 6; Detroit 1 of 7. Goalies - Carolina, Irbe 10-4 (25 shots-23 saves). Detroit, Hasek 12-7 (26-23). A - 20,058 (19,983).
Off the ice
Blues: Defenseman Chris Pronger, the NHL's Most Valuable Player in 1999-2000, underwent surgery on a torn ligament in his right knee and may miss the first three months of the season.
Pronger had torn pieces of his anterior cruciate ligament removed and replaced by a piece of his patella tendon. He'll begin rehabilitation immediately, the team said.
Rangers: Hockey Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier, who led the upstart Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983, apparently impressed Rangers president Glen Sather enough over the weekend to emerge as the front-runner for the team's coaching job, The New York Times reported.
Two unidentified NHL sources told the paper that Sather would probably hire Trottier, who has been an assistant coach with the Avalanche the past four seasons.