Former Notre Dame defenseman Ian Cole is in his ninth Stanley Cup playoffs. His name is etched on the Cup twice from his days with the Pittsburgh Penguins. However, he never has had the thrill of scoring a game-winning goal, let alone an overtime goal, in the playoffs. That just changed in Game 1 of his Carolina Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Rangers:
The goal looks less like one you’d see from an NHL player than one that’s scored in pick-up street hockey. But what else are you supposed to do when you scored only twice during the regular season and have 29 goals over 12 seasons? It really doesn’t matter though because whatever the Hurricanes do for the rest of the playoffs, Cole will have this memory forever. There’s no greater feeling than to find the back of the net when the stakes are raised and three periods weren’t enough to decide a winner.
Game 2 between the Hurricanes and Rangers will be played Friday.
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