Raleigh, N.C. – Who’s going to quibble about one letter?
Rains caused by the same system that brought the storm Alberto to the Southeast on Wednesday were so torrential in Raleigh, the area’s biggest mall was closed because of parking-lot flooding.
“We were joking that it was Hurricane Alberta coming through,” Edmonton defenseman Chris Pronger said with tongue in cheek after the Oilers’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. “So it was nice to see that we were getting a little bit of love from the weather.”
So much for a Hurricane omen.
The tailgaters at the RBC Center didn’t get to stick around for a soggy postgame celebration, thanks to Fernando Pisani’s short-handed goal for the Oilers at 3:31 of the overtime.
And the Hurricanes – the guys in the red jerseys – had to face the fact that they let a chance to clinch the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship get away, for at least another 72 hours.
Carolina center Eric Staal was down on himself for not more aggressively trying to get to and control the Cory Stillman pass that Pisani ended up intercepting and converting into his breakaway goal against Cam Ward. The goal was the first short-handed overtime score in Finals history.
“I didn’t see him until the last second,” Staal said of Pisani. “I needed to make a play, and I didn’t. … I have to get over it. We’re still ahead in the series, and we have a chance to win in Edmonton – and we’re going to do that.”
“It’s one game,” Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’ll get up (today), go back to work, go back to Edmonton.”
Stillman said the Hurricanes “are going to go out there and win, that’s the bottom line. We’re up, we have one game to win, and we’re looking forward to doing it.”
The Oilers’ victory meant the road team has won 14 of the 18 overtime games in the Finals since 1990. One of the 14 was the Avalanche’s 1-0 overtime win in the series-clinching Game 4 of the 1996 Finals against the Florida Panthers at Miami.
The Hurricanes’ next chance to clinch the Cup is Saturday night at Edmonton. But if the Oilers win that one, it comes down to a Game 7 on Monday night, back at the RBC Center.
