Rod Brind’Amour: ‘Tonight they weren’t going to be denied.’

Game two of this series was another eventful one from the Hurricanes. It had questionable officiating, big hits, big saves, a Dougie Hamilton goal and, most importantly, a 3-2 Hurricanes win.

Here’s a full breakdown of everything Rod Brind’Amour had to say after the series-evening win.

On Martin Necas: I thought there was a couple plays early that he was a little tentative, but as the game got on, he really started to assert himself. He has that ability, if you give him a little room, that he can definitely make some plays. He obviously can really skate, so he has that speed element. And I thought he was effective tonight for sure.

On the team’s response to questionable calls: I loved it. There’s a lot at stake, obviously. There’s a lot of adversity. You have to adapt and fight through it. With every turn, everything that seemed to go against us, the guys just went on to the next shift and bounced back. So I’m proud of the effort.

On the disallowed goal: I’m just going to avoid those questions, because I think I’ll get in trouble. So I’m just going to avoid them.

On Dougie Hamilton: He’s been impressive, especially back to back, after all that layoff. You’d figure the rust factor would be there. He was special and obviously scored a huge goal tonight. But the minutes that he’s putting up there, I think that’s something we didn’t really expect. He obviously answered the bell on that. So it was a pretty good performance tonight.

On adversity: I thought there was a lot of ups and downs in that game for a lot of reasons. I think we had a couple moments where we were a little frustrated, but the guys just put it behind him. I just felt tonight they weren’t going to be denied. You’ve got to give all the players all the credit in the world for this one.

On the team steeling its resolve: It definitely brings you that much closer, although I don’t know how much closer this group can get. It was just one of those nights that I felt like good things were going to happen to us just the way our engagement from the start of the game. Like I said, every time something seemed to go against us, we felt like we bounced back. It evens the series, it’s nothing to get overly excited about, but it at least gets us back to square one.

On Svechnikov’s response to the physicality: It’s playoff hockey. It’s a physical game. Hockey’s still got that element, especially this time of year. I think he can dish it out as well as he can take it. Pretty impressive for a young man. He’s still just learning, I say learning, he’s pretty much learned everything now. But he’s getting better and better and I think he actually enjoys those challenges.