Twice As Sweep: Jackson Blake's Overtime Heroics Sends Hurricanes To Eastern Conference Final

The Carolina Hurricanes are onto the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season and third time in the last four years thanks a 3-2 overtime win courtesy once again to the team's best line.

It was sophomore winger Jackson Blake who sealed the Game 4 win for Carolina, as his heavy wrister was too much for Philadelphia Flyers netminder Dan Vladar to stop and it fluttered out of his glove and into the back of the net.

All postseason long, it's been the trio of Blake, Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven leading the way, so it's only fitting that they once again were the big guns carrying the load.

Game 3 was the first time all playoffs that none of the three ended up on the scoresheet by the end of the night, but all three goals came off of their sticks in Game 4.

"That line has just been incredible, obviously," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "Hallsy, you’ve got to get him a lot of credit with how he's played. Blaker and Stanks, they’ve just really meshed, and you just saw it tonight. It was obvious. The best guys out there for us, and we needed them."

The second round sweep also made history for the Hurricanes as they became the first team in the modern playoff era to sweep back-to-back, best-of-seven series.

Philadelphia struck first early into first period as the Flyers were able to catch the Hurricanes in transition following a Blake neutral zone turnover.

Trevor Zegras entered the offensive zone and then hooked back toward the blueline before making a nice saucer pass across to Tyson Foerster, who went unnoticed off of the Philadelphia bench. The 24-year-old then carried the puck through the slot and ripped it past Frederik Andersen.

"At the first intermission, we kind of knew that that wasn't the greatest first period for us," Hall said. "I know us as a line, we just wanted to get to our game and play in their end and forecheck. We know that the strength of our game as a team and as a line is forechecking and disruption and we got to that in the second period and we didn't really look back."

Carolina would answer back in that second frame as Blake would avenge his earlier mistake with a fortunate bounce through traffic following a Taylor Hall offensive zone faceoff win.

"I think sometimes for faceoff guys like [Christian] Dvorak, it's hard to go against someone like me," Hall said. "They don't really know what I'm gonna do or how I'm gonna take the faceoff. We had a play kind of drawn up there, but… I don't know. It's just a 50/50 battle at the end of the day."

The Canes thought they had grabbed the lead just 28 seconds later after Mark Jankowski popped home a loose puck, but the goal ended up being called back for goaltender interference, giving him now two disallowed goals this postseason.

Jankowski's nightmare would continue as he followed that up by missing a wide-open cage off of a 3-on-1 rush. But the Flyers would pay him back by ringing the corner of the frame just a little bit later on a rush of their own.

"They were great too," Brind'Amour said on the fourth line. "Tough one on the called back goal, but really, you just look at the shifts, they're just positive. Every shift was like almost, almost. Janks had two or three on his stick. He had the empty net on one. Again, that's what you have to have this time of year. You need everyone contributing."

Logan Stankoven would however put the Hurricanes ahead early in the third period as the second line got on their high horses with a quick transition.

Hall blew past his man up the ice on the left wing and then fed a perfect pass across the crease to Stankoven, for his league leading seventh goal of the postseason.

"It's never fun when you get scored on and you're responsible for it," Stankoven said. "But it's nice to make up for it. When you get scored on, you want to get it back for your team and at least get even, but we were able to pull ahead and come out on the plus side, which is big."

Carolina's lead would be short lived though as Travis Konecny forced a turnover from K'Andre Miller below the goal line and then fed a feed right to Alex Bump cruising into the slot.

But there was never any panic from the Hurricanes' side as they were dominating the Flyers at even strength and so they knew all they had to so was keep playing.

In overtime, that opportunity came knocking as Jaccob Slavin knocked down a outlet attempt from Jamie Drysdale in the neutral zone, allowing the second line to reload with numbers and ultimately Hall found Blake in the right spot and he made no mistake.

"A lot went down on that goal," Blake said. "Slavo makes an unbelievable play and then Stanks middle line drives and pushes those D back and then Hallsy makes a play that not a lot of people can make there. Fortunately got the bounce and it went in. A lot of great plays there."