Inside the mind of Hurricanes’ Mark Jankowski, an OT hero who suddenly wasn’t
For a few fleeting minutes, Mark Jankowski was a playoff hero.
Late in the first overtime of the Carolina Hurricanes’ playoff game Monday with the Ottawa Senators, Jankowski pounced on a juicy rebound of a Seth Jarvis shot and zipped the puck past goalie Linus Ullmark.
The goal horn sounded. The Lenovo Center erupted. Canes players swarmed around Jankowski, who had the biggest smile in Wake County.
But Jankowski was soon like everyone else in the arena, anxiously eyeing replays on the scoreboard. The goal was being challenged and being reviewed, and after several agonizing minutes, officials ruled Carolina captain Jordan Staal was offside at the start of what would be the scoring sequence on a delayed penalty against Ottawa.
It all ended well for the Hurricanes. Jordan Martinook, who drew a hooking call on the play, did not convert a penalty shot after the no-goal ruling, but did supply the winning goal in the second overtime for a 3-2 victory and 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup playoff series.
“It was all pretty crazy,” a smiling Jankowski said Wednesday after practice. “When I scored, it was a huge high right away. Super excited. Happy we had won the game. Celebrating with everyone.
“And then you see (Ottawa) still on the bench, and you try to figure out what’s going on. We heard they were looking at offside, so I spent the next couple of minutes asking everyone I could see, ‘What did you see, was it good, was he off?’ I thought it was onside.
“When I saw it the first time, I thought it was. Then I saw it the next day, after I kind of calmed down, and he’s still onside.”
Jankowski had scored a playoff goal before — in 2024 with the Nashville Predators. But this was different. It would have been an overtime game-winner for the center, would have been a headliner in NHL Stanley Cup coverage.
After the game, Jankowski said he checked all the texts and messages on his phone.
“Almost everybody I knew had sent me the same text,” he said. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, let’s go, yes!.’ Then a few minutes later, it was ‘Oh, no way, you got robbed!’ I got both ends of the spectrum, and all from the same people.
“I’m just happy we won the game. It would have stung a lot more if we didn’t end up on top, but we did. We didn’t get down. We pushed through, and obviously it was huge to get that one to win it.”
Jankowski’s line, with wingers William Carrier and Eric Robinson, did its part. Brind’Amour continued to roll four lines throughout the game and Jankowski had nine total shifts in the two overtime periods — one more memorable than the others.
“In a long playoff run you’re going to need your depth and that’s a huge strength of our team,” Jankowski said. “You get in those games like double overtime, or a long series, and you’re going to need that. I think we can provide that, for sure.”
The first-round series moves to Ottawa for the next two games. The Canes practiced Wednesday with a full complement of players, preparing for another physical, tight-checking game.
“They don’t give you much,” Jankowski said. “They play a good structured game. They play hard. We knew how hard a series it would be, and it has proven to be that, with low-scoring, tight games. We need to keep pushing forward and keep our foot on the gas.”
