LAS VEGAS — Twenty minutes into Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the game, the series and the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP all felt like toss-ups.Twenty minutes later, favorites had emerged.By the end of the night, we were back to square one.The Vegas Golden Knights, behind a second-period natural hat trick from Mitch Marner and a double-overtime winner from Shea Theadore, beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Saturday night, securing a 2-1 series lead heading into Tuesday’s Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena.To get there, Vegas needed to withstand a historic third-period flurry by the Hurricanes that turned the game into yet another nail-biter in what’s been one of the most closely contested Cup Finals in recent memory. All three games have been decided by one goal, and the last two have featured pure chaos down the stretch. Had they won, the Hurricanes would’ve become the first team in Final history to win a game in which they trailed by four goals. They came back from two down in the third period to win Game 2, 4-3 in overtime.Vegas and Marner initially seized control during a six-minute, 10-second sequence that saw him beat Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen three times, pushing Vegas’ second-intermission lead to 4-0 and sending himself to the top of the list of playoff MVP contenders.The outburst gave Marner 10 goals in 19 games during this postseason and was the fastest hat trick in Final history, breaking the previous record of 6:21 set 69 years ago by Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard.Andersen faced 14 shots on goal in the second and stopped just 10 of them. Carolina replaced him with Brandon Bussi for the third period and, after Bussi stopped Marner on a penalty shot at 4:04, got goals from Jordan Martinook, Taylor Hall and Jordan Staal separated by just 39 seconds, the fastest three-goal sequence in the history of the Cup Final. Bussi finished with 18 saves on 19 shots, several of them Grade-A stops.He was out of the net for teammate Andrei Svechnikov’s game-tying goal with 1:42 remaining in regulation. Svechnikov beat Vegas goaltender Carter Hart amidst a scramble in the crease, setting up a second straight overtime finish.The Golden Knights appeared to take a 1-0 lead 36 seconds into the second period on a partial breakaway by Mark Stone, who beat Andersen for a five-hole squeaker, but the call was overturned by a Carolina coach’s challenge. Officials ruled that Brett Howden, Vegas’ leading playoff goal scorer, was offside.About three minutes later, another apparent Vegas goal, by Jack Eichel, was overturned by another Carolina challenge; Ivan Barbashev made contact with Andersen’s head in a net-front mosh pit, sent him to the ice and prevented him from attempting to stop Eichel’s shot. Tomas Hertl put the Golden Knights up 1-0 with a no-doubt power-play goal at 10:26, setting the stage for Marner’s fireworks show.The first period represented a bit of a course correction from the chaos of Games 1 and 2 at Lenovo Center. In Saturday’s first 20 minutes, both teams combined for nine shots, with Carolina holding a 7-2 edge, seven high-danger chances and zero goals.