Fastest hat-trick and crazy comeback: Records tumble in Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final

[h2]Fastest hat-trick in Stanley Cup Final[/h2][p]Things weren’t going well in Toronto, and he was under heavy criticism – that’s one of the reasons why [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/marner-mitchell/Agmv3YoI/"]Mitchell Marner[/a] decided to sign with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/vegas-golden-knights/fTT0TsUg/"]Vegas[/a] before the season.  And it turned out to be the right move. He leads the playoff scoring race by a huge margin of eight points and made history again in the third game of the finals.[/p][p][b]The Canadian forward scored a hat-trick in just six minutes and 10 seconds in the second period, the fastest three goals ever in an NHL final series.[/b][/p][p]He broke the 69-year-old record of the legendary Maurice Richard by 11 seconds. Marner also became only the seventh player in history to score a 'natural hat-trick' in the Stanley Cup Final.[/p][embed guid="5351d735-ba10-4bc0-872d-e82dfa3e66ee" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0y0PYaqX1c" social-type="youtube" /][h2]Four points in a single period[/h2][p]As if that wasn’t enough for Marner, he also assisted on [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hertl-tomas/WAU1Snrj/"]Hertl’s[/a] opening goal in the second period. That gave him four points (3+1) in a single period, something only Frank Foyston had achieved before in a finals battle, and that was back in 1919.[/p][p]Marner also became the first Golden Knights player ever to record at least two four-point games in a single playoff run.[/p][image alt="Mitch Marner's stats for the match" id="2be175a6-ba4c-4aea-b4a1-17e80889c1aa" credit-line="Flashscore (photo by Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images)" guid="de464857-c7c3-48cf-9eff-562c86012c5f" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][h2]Carolina's sensational comeback[/h2][p]Even though John Tortorella’s team led 4-0 after two periods and seemed to have the game under control, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/carolina-hurricanes/Sx0gl0tm/"]Carolina[/a] didn’t give up and turned the game into a real thriller. Ironically, it was Marner, the hero, who sparked the comeback for the seemingly defeated opponent.[/p][p]The Markham native could have scored his fourth goal on a penalty shot in the 45th minute, but [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/bussi-brandon/YXCZz0JU/"]Brandon Bussi[/a] made the save. [b]"I was pretty tired, and before the attempt, I didn’t notice that Carolina had changed goalies. Bussi catches with the opposite hand, but I still think my move was pretty good, I just missed by a little," [/b]Marner said.[/p][embed guid="cc68a3f0-8bd4-47fc-8a81-b7aa87e384e3" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1Qv2omvtU" social-type="youtube" /][p]And then came the punishment. At 47:03, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/martinook-jordan/0O3RdaYE/"]Jordan Martinook[/a] scored a goal to give hope, followed 26 seconds later by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hall-taylor/4dK9PWLO/"]Taylor Hall[/a], and just 13 seconds after that, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/staal-jordan/nybJM7z7/"]Jordan Staal[/a] cut the deficit to just one goal.[/p][p][b]Three goals in 39 seconds: No team had ever done that before in a Stanley Cup Final match. [/b]The overall playoff record belongs to Toronto, who scored three goals in 23 seconds in 1979.[/p][p]And the Hurricanes weren’t done yet. With less than two minutes left, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/svechnikov-andrei/6DbeHrlr/"]Andrei Svechnikov[/a] erased the four-goal deficit and sent the game to overtime.[/p][p][b]Carolina thus became only the second team in history to come back from a four-goal deficit in a final. [/b]The same feat was achieved by the Rangers in 1972, but the New York team still lost the game to Boston (5:6).[/p][h2]Theodore the hero[/h2][p]The game, which had fans on the edge of their seats, finally went to a second overtime. At 85:38, defenseman [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/theodore-shea/zwr54Xsd/"]Shea Theodore[/a] ended it, sending the puck past goalie Bussi with a lucky bounce off the boards.[/p][p][b]"[/b][b]More than anything, I just felt relief. In the second overtime, you don’t overthink things. I just threw it in front of the net, and luckily it crossed the line," [/b]Theodore said about the decisive moment.[/p][embed guid="a86c414b-f448-4dd0-99eb-532739faf50b" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhNbemqvJls" social-type="youtube" /][p]There are also some interesting facts about Theodore, too. He became only the seventh defenseman in NHL history to score at least two overtime goals in a single playoff run. Only two defensemen have scored three - [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/chelios-chris/Aii5byEn/"]Chris Chelios[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/martinez-alec/lruUchYn/"]Alec Martinez[/a].[/p][p]It’s also worth noting that Theodore is the only active defenseman to have scored two overtime goals in the playoffs.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/hockey/carolina-hurricanes-Sx0gl0tm/vegas-golden-knights-fTT0TsUg/?mid=MuXlJtHP"]Catch up on the match with Flashscore here![/a][/b][/p]