RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes are just one win away from their second Stanley Cup, thanks to a trio of veteran goal scorers who have been with the franchise for the entirety of coach Rod Brind’Amour’s tenure.
Carolina defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is Sunday in Las Vegas, where the Hurricanes can claim their first Cup since 2006 when Brind’Amour was team captain.
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“This is the biggest win in my life personally. Thank God we won that game,” said Hurricanes’ forward Andrei Svechnikov, who scored two power-play goals. “Obviously, all focus right now. In our mind, we got one more win to do here.”
Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes’ current captain, scored for the fifth consecutive game to tie the game after a Vegas goal opened the scoring. Then it was veteran top-line forwards Andrei Svechnikov (two) and Sebastian Aho (one) with three goals in the final periods to give the Hurricanes the lead for good.
Staal joined the team in 2012 as part of a draft-day trade. Aho came aboard in 2016, two years before Svechnikov. The latter have never played for another franchise. Along with forward Jordan Martinook and defenseman Jaccob Slavin, the trio has been with Brind’Amour since he was promoted to head coach in 2018.
Now they may all get to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Perhaps as soon as Sunday night in the desert.
“It’s going to be really hard,” forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. It’s going to be a really tough game, but we’re excited for it. We’re ready for it. This team has been working all year for moments like these and, especially, this moment.”
Vegas coach John Tortorella promised his team would be back in Raleigh for a potential Game 7.
“We’ll be back here,” Tortorella said. He added: “I’m going to leave my clothes here. That’s for sure. They’ll be in the hotel.”
On a night for the veterans and stars, it was one of Carolina’s least experienced players that also delivered.
Rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi, a waiver wire pickup before the season who won 31 games for Carolina, secured his second straight win in the series. The Lenovo Center crowd gave Bussi the loudest cheer during pre-game introductions and chanted his name throughout the night as he made several key stops in his second postseason start.
“Bus had a lot of poise,” Brind’Amour said. “I think he looked pretty calm in there and, obviously, played a great game for us.”
Frederik Andersen started the first 16 games of the playoffs for Carolina, but the series is now in Bussi’s hands. Andersen didn’t dress for the second straight game.
Vegas forward Pavel Dorofeyev, who had been held pointless in the first four games of the Stanley Cup Final, opened the scoring in Game 5.
Dorofeyev scored on a power-play goal on an assist from Jack Eichel in front of the net. Eichel’s pass went under the stick of Carolina defenseman Jalen Chatfield and found a streaking Dorofeyev alone on the right side of the net. He shoveled it past Bussi.
But the Hurricanes scored the next four goals to take command in a series that has now featured 39 goals.
And it just feels like Carolina captain Jordan Staal has all of them. He scored for the fifth straight game, tying the game at 1 in the first period. It was his sixth goal of the Final.
Staal has six goals in five games after he redirected a pass from Nikolaj Ehlers past Vegas goaltender Carter Hart with 8:14 left in the first period. His five goals in the first four games of a Final tied him with hockey immortals Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
Staal was once again in front of the net, a spot from which Tortorella said Staal is “killing us” after he had two goals in Game 4.
“Who got us back into it? Jordo,” Brind’Amour said of the first period that he didn’t like. “So we could take a breath and be like, ‘No damage done.’ I can’t say enough about him.”
In the second period, which had been a sore spot for Carolina in the series, the scoring stars got on the board. The Hurricanes had been outscored 9-1 in the second period in the series before Game 5.
Svechnikov’s first goal was Carolina’s fifth power-play goal of the series. He circled with the man advantage and fired a shot through Vegas goaltender Carter Hart’s legs with 8:02 remaining in the second period.
“We got the shooting mentality and looking for rebounds and I think we got the chemistry going,” Svechnikov said of the power play.
Later, Aho took a pass from defenseman Sean Walker, stopped it with his skate, moved it to his stick and flipped a shot over Hart for his first goal of the series.
“He’s played really well,” Brind’Amour said. “Getting on the scoresheet, he knows he needs to do that. He’s playing all the power plays, getting a lot of time to cash in. It doesn’t mean you’re not playing well. All playoffs, he’s played really well, but, man, if we can get that out of him, that’s just a big bonus for our team.”
Svechnikov added a second power-play goal in the third period to extend the lead. Carolina has scored at least four goals in every game of the series. Hart has allowed exactly four goals in all five games, the first goalie to do that in Stanley Cup Final history.
"Big players showing up at a big time," Walker said of Svechnikov and Aho. "Those were huge goals for us. If they're scoring for us, we're definitely doing things right, and we're going to have success."
Tortorella was asked if he considered pulling Hart for the third period.
“That could be the stupidest question I’ve heard,” he said.
In a series that has featured multi-goal comebacks in the first four games, Bussi made the lead hold up. Dorofeyev added a second power-play goal in the third with 6:11 left, but Vegas got no closer despite some 6-on-4 time with the goalie pulled late in the game.
“I liked our game a lot,” Bussi said. “I would have liked to have kept the second one out, so we could keep everybody calmer. But it happens. Our sacrifice there, those last six minutes, it was great to see. We never give up.”
And now the Hurricanes are just a win away from the Cup. One win from the franchise’s second title. One win from the 2026 team joining the 2006 team as champions. One win from Brind’Amour putting his name on the Cup a second time with the franchise — then as captain, now as coach.
“It’s probably good to have a couple days in between, to be honest, because there’s a lot going on now and it’s not ideal,” Brind’Amour said. “We got to get that all figured out and then get ready to play a game because we know how hard it’s going to be.”
