For 55 minutes, every fan in PNC Arena held their breath.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche had been exchanging high-danger chances, shots off the pipes, odd-man rushes and more back and forth, but yet each team’s netminder were making saves bigger than the last.
It seemed like a game destined for overtime.
But then the ice broke.
Not by a slick toe drag or dazzling snipe, but a shot from the point from Ethan Bear that deflected off a few bodies — his third goal of the season.
It was such an innocent shot, preceded by a nothing play — Jesper Fast winning a race to the boards to keep a forechecking shift alive — but that’s exactly the kind of plays that this game needed to decide a winner.