It was oh so close. the Chicago Blackhawks had nearly forced extra time with the Carolina Hurricanes and a chance to sweep the two-game set on Thursday night.
The dream ended when Jesper Fast scored with 29 seconds left in regulation for a 4-3 Carolina win.
“I heard Trocheck yelling for me to come with good speed, so I just tried to give it to him and get to the net,” Fast said. “I got a little weird bounce and I almost missed the puck too, but lucky it went post and in. Very happy with that.”
James Reimer made 22 saves to get the win.
“I don’t know, it was just some weird bounces for both teams for goals,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Not a lot going on either way for both teams, but I don’t think it was poor. It just wasn’t great. I liked the fact that when we have these bad things happen, we just keep playing, so that’s good for our guys.”
Vincent Trocheck and Warren Foegele s(two goals) taked the Canes to a 2-0 lead.
“I was just trying to get it to [Nino Niederreiter] there,” Foegele said. “Just trying to throw pucks at the net. It’s fun how this game works sometimes. There are goals that should go in and some that you get the bounce. Keep it simple, keep playing hard and sometimes you get those bounces.”
Dominik Kubalik and Brandon Hagel scored for the Blackhawks to get the game tied at 2-2.
“If maybe I would go a little harder or put it just a little bit in a different spot it would go in because the hole was there,” Kubalik said. “It just stayed under the pads. I knew it right away it stayed there. We didn’t score that one and they scored on the way back, so that’s pretty frustrating right now.”
Foegele put the Hurricanes up 3-2, but Dylan Strome tied it at 3-3 before Fast’s late heroics. 
Kevin Lankinen made 27 saves in the loss.
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