Unger Sorum caps Hurricanes' 6-5 comeback in Greensboro
Felix Unger Sorum scored with 2.6 seconds left as Carolina beat Nashville 6-5 in its first game in Greensboro since 1999.
The Carolina Hurricanes went back to where their North Carolina story began on Thursday, and nearly 14,000 fans at First Horizon Coliseum watched them erase a four-goal deficit to beat the Nashville Predators 6-5 in preseason play.
Felix Unger Sorum scored the winner with 2.6 seconds left on the clock.
For a long stretch it looked grim. Nashville built a 5-1 lead, and the Hurricanes needed five unanswered goals over the final 37:22 to pull it out. The crowd never let up, and at one point in the second period a wave rolled through every seating section of the building.
It was Carolina's first game in Greensboro since 1999. The Hurricanes played their first two seasons in North Carolina there, and the Stanley Cup was in the building for the return.
"It was a lot of fun. I think the crowd was into it all night long," Taylor Hall said. "Even when we were down, every scoring chance, they made noise. They clearly know hockey."
Hall skipped the team bus and drove the roughly 90 minutes from Raleigh himself. Earlier in the week he had told head coach Rod Brind'Amour he wanted to play in two preseason games to sharpen his timing. The second is Saturday afternoon's exhibition finale in Nashville, ahead of Tuesday's regular-season opener against the Florida Panthers.
"That's what it's about. You're never out until the final horn," Logan Stankoven said. "It was great to see the guys battle. It was an exciting game. Even though it's only preseason, I think it's great just to get the juices flowing again, and it was a great turnout from the people in Greensboro."
Brind'Amour once played against the Hurricanes in the same building.
"It was a nice night. They were loud, they were cheering, and thankfully we gave them something to cheer about," he said. "It didn't look so good there for a lot of the game, but everyone went home happy, so that's good."
He added: "Clearly we have people out in Greensboro that support the Canes, right? You get talking about Raleigh, and that's obviously our big fan base, but it's nice to know we have fans elsewhere and nice to get back to a place where it all started."
