Carolina Hurricanes Shut Out Vegas Golden Knights In Game 6 To Claim Their Second Stanley Cup
Brandon Bussi made 22 saves. Taylor Hall scored on a breakaway. The Hurricanes won three straight to close the series. Carolina are Stanley Cup champions for the second time in their history, 20 years after the first.
The Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions. Twenty years after Rod Brind'Amour lifted the Cup as captain in 2006, he lifted it again on Sunday night in Las Vegas as coach, becoming the seventh person in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with the same franchise as both a player and a coach. The Hurricanes shut out the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena to win the series four games to two, capping a playoff run that finished 16-3 in wins and losses.
The story of the series was Brandon Bussi, and he delivered the perfect ending. The 27-year-old undrafted rookie came off the bench in Game 3 with Carolina trailing in the series 2-1, stepped into the biggest situation of his career, and never gave it back. On Sunday night he stopped all 22 shots he faced, became the third first-year goalie in NHL history to post a shutout in a Cup-clinching game, and heard the visiting Carolina fans chanting his name in the building that belongs to Vegas.
How Game 6 Was Won
Taylor Hall opened the scoring at 3:47 of the first period on a breakaway after Jackson Blake forced a turnover at the Carolina blue line. Jaccob Slavin collected the puck and found Hall behind the Vegas defence with a stretch pass. Hall beat Carter Hart with a slapshot for his seventh goal of the playoffs.
Bussi kept it 1-0 by stopping Brett Howden on a breakaway midway through the first. The Golden Knights, who had scored 13 goals in the first three games of the series, could not find a way through Carolina's defensive structure when it mattered most. Blake doubled the lead in the second with a slapshot off a rebound, assisted by Logan Stankoven for his fifth playoff helper. Nikolaj Ehlers, who had scored the first goal of the series in the opening 25 seconds of Game 1, scored the last one into an empty net to seal it.
The Numbers That Define This Run
Carolina went 16-3 in the playoffs. The Hall, Blake and Stankoven line finished the postseason with a combined 54 points. Vegas did not register a shot on goal for 18 minutes and 37 seconds across the second and third periods. Jordan Staal, who scored in each of the first four games of the final, lifted the Cup as captain. Brind'Amour said simply: "I'm so happy for everyone, this is what it's all about."