Hull of a clutch goal

Late goal in regulation led to a long night in Raleigh

Nicklas Lidstrom (left) hugs Brett Hull after Hull's game-tying goal with 1:14 left in the third period. AP

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- If nine wasn't a special number for Brett Hull before, it might be one now.

Hull's ninth goal of the playoffs -- and 99th postseason goal of his career -- with 1:14 left in regulation helped Detroit tie Carolina late in regulation, and the Red Wings went on to beat the Hurricanes 3-2 in the third overtime of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night and take a 2-1 series lead.

"That was bigger than any goal I've scored," Hull said.

The last time Hull scored a goal this significant was in 1999, when he scored the series-winning goal for Dallas over Buffalo -- and current teammate Dominik Hasek -- in the third overtime of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.

While there was some controversy about that goal in the second-longest game in finals history, there was nothing overshadowing the latest off the stick of one of the game's greatest scorers in the third-longest game in the finals.

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Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom sent a wrist shot from above the left circle and Hull redirected it out of the air and past Arturs Irbe for his first point in the series.

Hull skated away from Irbe smiling.

"We felt snake-bitten up to that point," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "I guess that's what you look for from goal scorers, to score those kind of goals."

Hull moved one step closer to the reason he joined the Red Wings -- winning the Stanley Cup.

The son of Hall of Famer Bobby Hull was the third high-priced acquisition Detroit made last summer to take another run at the Stanley Cup.

After trading for Hasek and signing Luc Robitaille, Hull agreed to a two-year contract worth $9 million. Hull, who will turn 38 in August, wanted to prove that he could still play after the Stars let him go and that he was interested in more than money because he could have earned more elsewhere.

"I'd rather be old and smart than young and stupid," Hull said.

Hull played in all 82 regular-season games -- even when he was given the option to rest toward the end of the season -- and scored 30 goals and made 33 assists.

After going the first five games of the playoffs without scoring -- and the first four without an assist -- Hull got his first career playoff hat trick in the sixth and final game of the first-round series against Vancouver. In that game, he set a NHL record with his 36th power-play goal in the playoffs.

He scored five goals in the second and third rounds against St. Louis and Colorado and was without a point in the finals before Saturday night when his game-tying goal turned a raucous arena into a quiet one.

 

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