TORONTO -- Seventeen years ago, 18-year-old Paul Maurice was defending his net in a junior charity game. In a flash, a deflected slap shot hit him in his right eye, permanently limiting his sight and forever ending his dream of playing in the NHL.

	Despite taking a puck in the eye, and the swelling that followed, Jeff O'Neill carried on for the Hurricanes.

"September 17," Maurice said, now 35, recalling the exact anniversary date of his life-changing injury. "That's when it happened."

So, on Tuesday night, when Carolina right wing Jeff O'Neill fell to the ice with less than five minutes gone in the first period after being hit in the right eye with a clearing attempt by Toronto defenseman Bryan McCabe, the Hurricanes coach held his breath.

As he peered with his own limited vision from behind the Carolina bench, Maurice was looking -- hoping -- for blood.

"Having been through an eye injury, the first thing I notice is there's blood," Maurice said. "If there's no blood, that's not a good thing. That means it hit square on."

As Maurice watched O'Neill, laying face down on the ice in the Maple Leafs' zone, he didn't see red.

"I just got a sick feeling," he said. "I'll tell you that."

Maurice's feeling didn't get much better when O'Neill returned to the bench.

"There wasn't a lot of eye to be seen," Maurice said. "I didn't think he was going to be able to finish."

But, with some continuous help from the team's medical staff, O'Neill was able to finish. In fact, he finished Game 3 of this Eastern Conference final for everyone at the Air Canada Centre by depositing a stray Ron Francis pass into the top of the net to give the Canes' their second consecutive 2-1 overtime victory and a 2-1 series lead.

At the postgame news conference, the heavily bandaged O'Neill -- looking like Rocky Balboa after 15 rounds with Apollo Creed -- didn't see his night as any big deal.

"Everybody out there has something going on," said O'Neill. "You see Mats Sundin coming back and Darcy Tucker, it's the spirit of the Stanley Cup playoffs. No matter what happens, you go out there and play and that's what makes it special."

But, really, O'Neill's performance -- which Maurice called his best of the playoffs -- was special. Especially, when you consider he struggled with his balance for the first 10 or 15 minutes after the injury.

On the bench, in between first-period shifts, Canes athletic therapist Peter Friesen kept an ice bag on O'Neill's eye. According to O'Neill, Friesen was so persistent with the ice it became "a little annoying."

Still, by the end of the period, O'Neill's eye was nearly swollen shut. Finally, Friesen knew ice wasn't going to be enough.

"I think they used a needle or something to drain some of the blood and it worked pretty good," said O'Neill, who declined Friesen's request to don a face shield for the remainder of the game. "The swelling seemed to go down and it was fine after that."

Fine enough for O'Neill to bank an overtime game-winner. For that reason, he'll probably remember May 21 for years to come. And, luckily for him, it will be a day worth remembering.

E.J. Hradek writes for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.