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This Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights was one of the craziest in recent memory, if not ever.
After four thriller games, including two insane games in Vegas, the series returned to Raleigh for Game 5, with both teams tied at 2-2.
It was one of the slower starts in a series filled with quick strikes, but one thing that was consistent throughout? Self-inflicted sanctions.
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Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev opened the scoring in Game 5 with a power play goal. (James Guillory-Imagn Images)
The Hurricanes were whistled for one of those instances a few minutes before midway in the first period when Nikolaj Ehlers fired a puck over the glass, and it didn’t take Vegas long to make them pay.
Golden Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev took advantage of the ensuing power play, burying Vegas’ first shot of the night with a superb pass from Jack Eichel.
However, minutes later, Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal – playing in the Cup final of his life – extended his scoring streak to five games with a nifty redirection on an Ehlers pass (redemption!) to level things up.
This tied the record for the longest scoring streak in Stanley Cup Final history. Staal only had two playoff goals before the series started.
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal tied a Stanley Cup Final record by scoring in five straight games in this series. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)
Carolina opened the second period by killing off another penalty – another delay of game infraction, if you can believe it – but it was back-to-back Vegas penalties that led to a Hurricanes goal.
Just a second after the Golden Knights overturned a Jeremy Lauzon roughing penalty, Brayden McNabb took an ill-advised cross-checking penalty to send 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 guns who needed to find the goal column. The other? Sebastian Aho, and that’s exactly what he did a few minutes later.
As if things weren’t bad enough for the Golden Knights in the second period, one of their key players, William Karlsson, left the game and did not return.
Moving on to the third, where the story continues that the Golden Knights are taking bad penalties, which is totally unlike them.
This time it was their captain Mark Stone who hit Carolina’s Jalen Chatfield with a high stick. Worse yet, he grabbed 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 these series, you’ll know that nothing comes easy, and shortly after Carolina increased its lead, Dorofeyev scored his second of the game to cut the deficit to two.
Then, in what happened in almost every game of this series, that goal sparked a feverish Vegas push that resulted in multiple scoring chances.
Carolina held on, but with just 2:13 left, Nikolaj Ehlers was whistled for delay of game.
Vegas then pulled the goaltender to go on a 6-on-4 power play.
The Golden Knights prepared and had some great chances, including one for Tomas Hertl that was robbed by Bussi – who made 22 saves on 24 shots – with 80 seconds left in regulation.
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The late penalty gave the Canes carte blanche to shoot 200 feet into an empty net, buying time and helping them maintain that 4-2 lead.
Carolina now leads the series 3-2 as it returns to T-Mobile Arena in Vegas on Sunday, where the Hurricanes will have a chance to capture their second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
