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This Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights has been one of the wildest in recent memory, if not ever.
After four thrillers, including two crazy games in Las Vegas, the series returned to Raleigh for Game 5, with the two teams tied 2-2.
This was one of the slower starts to a series full of quick hits, but is there one thing that’s been consistent throughout? Self-inflicted sanctions.
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Las Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev opened the scoring in Game 5 with a power-play goal. (Images by James Guillory-Imagn)
The Hurricanes were whistled for one of those minutes before midway through the first period when Nikolaj Ehlers fired a puck over the glass, and it didn’t take long for Las Vegas to make them pay.
Golden Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev took advantage of the power play that followed, burying Vegas’ first shot of the night off an excellent assist from Jack Eichel.
However, just a few minutes later, Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal, who is playing in the cup final of his life, extended his scoring streak to five games with a deft redirection of an Ehlers pass (redemption!) to level things up.
That tied the record for the longest scoring streak in Stanley Cup Final history. Staal scored only two goals this postseason before the series began.
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal tied a Stanley Cup Final record by scoring in five consecutive games in this series. (Images by Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn)
Carolina opened the second period by killing another penalty (another delay of game violation, if you can believe it), but it was back-to-back penalties for Vegas that led to a Hurricanes goal.
Just one second after the Golden Knights overturned a Jeremy Lauzon roughing penalty, Brayden McNabb took a reckless cross-court penalty to put Carolina back on the power play.
That’s when Andrei Svechnikov gave the Canes a 2-1 lead.
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Svechnikov was one of the Canes’ big shots who needed to find the goal column. The other? Sebastian Aho, and that’s what he did a few minutes later.
As if things weren’t bad enough for the Golden Knights in the second frame, one of their key players, William Karlsson, left the game and did not return.
We move on to the third, where the story continued to be the Golden Knights taking bad penalties, something that is wildly out of character for them.
This time, it was their captain Mark Stone who hit Carolina’s Jalen Chatfield with a high stick. Worse, he caught it enough to draw blood, earning him a double minor.
One that the Hurricanes converted with Svechnikov scoring his second of the night to give them a 4-1 lead.
If you’ve watched any of this series, you know that nothing comes easy, and not long after Carolina extended their lead, Dorofeyev scored his second goal of the game to cut the deficit to two.
Then, as has happened in almost every game in this series, that goal started a feverish push in Las Vegas that resulted in several scoring opportunities.
Carolina held on, but with just 2:13 remaining, Nikolaj Ehlers was penalized for delay of game.
Vegas then pulled the goalie for a 6-on-4 power play.
The Golden Knights geared up and had some big chances, including one to Tomas Hertl, who was robbed by Bussi, who had 22 saves on 24 shots, with 80 seconds left in regulation.
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The late penalty gave the Canes carte blanche to take 200-foot shots into the empty net, and that helped run the clock down and help them hold on to that 4-2 lead.
Carolina now leads the series 3-2 as it returns to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, where the Hurricanes will have a chance to clinch their second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
