Marner scored 16 seconds later, when his backhanded shot from near the wall in the right face-off circle was inadvertently knocked into the net by Carolina defenseman Sean Walker, giving Vegas a 2-0 lead.

Marner made it 3-0 at 14:32, 11 seconds after he hit the right post on a breakaway. Brayden McNabb kept the puck in the zone and found Marner low behind all five Carolina skaters, where he scored off a forehand-to-backhand deke for his second goal in 3:50 and Vegas’ third in 4:06. 

“‘Nabber’ just coming in on that pinch, just the patience and play he made to me to allow me to get around the net was phenomenal,” Marner said.

Marner’s third goal came off another breakaway. He got loose past Alexander Nikishin, took a pass from Hertl, skated into the right circle and made it 4-0 with a far-side slap shot that went in off Andersen’s blocker at 16:52.

Bussi stopped his penalty shot early in the third to keep it a 4-0 game.

“I’m thinking we need to score that and I’m not lying to you because they came back and scored four,” Tortorella said. “I’m thinking we need another one just to keep on going.”

Martinook made it 4-1 at 7:03, cashing in on a strong forecheck by Seth Jarvis before getting hit from behind by Cole Smith.

“I just think we needed something good to happen,” Martinook said. 

Hall cut the deficit to 4-2 at 7:29. Sebastian Aho stole the puck from McNabb in the offensive zone and from below the right circle sent a backhanded pass across to Hall, who scored from the far post.

Staal made it 4-3 at 7:42, scoring from the lower part of the left circle on a deflection of Jaccob Slavin’s shot off the left-wing half-wall.

Carolina also scored three goals on consecutive shots in the third period of Game 2 on Thursday.

Svechnikov tied it 4-4 at 18:18, scoring a power-play goal with Bussi pulled for the extra skater to make it a 6-on-4 situation. After the puck went to the net and got loose, Carolina forward Nikolaj Ehlers was pushed in as Svechnikov found it in the slot and shoved it into the net.

“I’ve experienced a lot of games in playoffs. I haven’t experienced one like this,” Tortorella said. “We could do nothing wrong in the second period and probably did everything wrong in the third period.”

But the game didn’t end there. It continued for 25 minutes and 38 seconds of overtime, until Theodore did the right thing, got the bounce and the reward.

“Not how we drew it up,” Vegas forward William Karlsson said, “but we’ll take it.”

NOTES: Carolina forward William Carrier left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Brind’Amour did not have an update on his status. … The Hurricanes lost in overtime for the first time in the playoffs this season (6-1). … McNabb played with a full cage because of facial injuries he sustained in the first period of Game 2, when he was struck in the face by an Ehlers slap shot. The defenseman played 35:47, finished with two assists, including the setup for Theodore’s winner, and was plus-3.