Golden Knights-Hurricanes Game 2 takeaways, grades, questions - ESPN

Down is up. Right is left. The future is the past. Nothing makes sense.

In Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, the host Carolina Hurricanes trailed by two goals, scored three straight to take a lead in the third, lost that lead only to win 4-3 in overtime against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Both of the first two games really came alive once the regulation clock was within the last five minutes. Now the setting shifts to Las Vegas for Games 3 and 4, with the Cup Final resuming Saturday.

Every game comes with its own set of questions and thoughts to ponder. This one had a lot of them. Here's a look at how both teams influenced the momentum of the game, the players to watch going forward, along with the looming questions heading into Game 3.

Perhaps the easiest way to dissect this game is to look at how the Hurricanes performed in the first 50 minutes versus what happened afterward. The first 50 minutes was an extremely complicated scenario. The Hurricanes found what could be deemed success in preventing the Knights from consistently generating shots and scoring chances; the blemishes were the two goals by Brett Howden.

What overshadowed that defensive effort was how the Hurricanes had a first-period shot share of 82.1%. The top-six forward group featuring Sebastian Aho, Jackson Blake, Nikolaj Ehlers, Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and Andrei Svechnikov each had a shot share that was greater than 60% — only to come away with nothing. It also didn't help that Alexander Nikishin was the only member of the Canes blue line who recorded a shot on goal by midway through the third period, an odd occurrence for a team that had four defensemen finish with more than 30 points in the regular season.

Then came the time after the initial 50