Hurricanes beat Golden Knights, take 3-2 Stanley Cup Final lead

Carolina spent much of this Stanley Cup Final trying to shake a familiar label, the contender that could not quite deliver when the margin got tight. In Game 5, the Hurricanes looked more like a team built to close, getting goals from Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal in a 4-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The victory gave Carolina a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and pushed the Hurricanes one win from their first Stanley Cup since 2006. Game 6 is set for Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Carolina will try to turn a strong home performance into a championship road finish.

Svechnikov drove the night. He scored twice, including a power-play goal from the post that stretched the lead to 4-1 midway through the third period and finally gave Carolina the kind of cushion it had not always protected earlier in the series. Aho added a second-period goal, and Staal added his fifth goal of the postseason as Carolina’s top line delivered the offense the club had been waiting for.

Brandon Bussi gave Carolina the stability it needed behind that attack. In his second career postseason start, he made 23 saves and held firm after the Hurricanes built the two-goal margin. Bussi had already started Game 4 in Vegas and made 18 saves in a 5-3 win, his first Stanley Cup Playoff start, a performance that made him only the third goalie in the expansion era to make his first career playoff start in a Stanley Cup Final and win.

The result carried weight beyond one night in Raleigh. The Final began June 2 in Raleigh, and when a series is tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has gone on to take the championship nearly 75% of the time. Carolina seized that advantage by controlling key stretches, answering pressure with composure and getting the kind of finish it had lacked earlier in the series. Svechnikov, who began the regular season without a goal or point in Carolina’s first eight games, called it “the biggest win in my life, personally.” Staal said, “It required everything we have,” and Rod Brind’Amour said, “I liked our effort for sure, and I hope we’re getting better.”