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AP Photo/John Locher
Twenty years after Rod Brind'Amour hoisted the Stanley Cup as captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, he hoisted it again Sunday night as their coach.
Brandon Bussi stopped all 22 shots he faced, Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake scored in the first two periods, and Eric Robinson added an empty-net goal with under two minutes remaining as Carolina defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena. The Hurricanes claimed their second Stanley Cup championship in franchise history, ending a 20-year title drought that stretched back to Brind'Amour's days in the captain's room.
It is the first Stanley Cup for the state of North Carolina since that 2006 team — led on the ice by a 35-year-old Brind'Amour — defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
Bussi, a 27-year-old who began this season with the Florida Panthers before being claimed off waivers by Carolina on Oct. 5, became the unlikely hero of the Hurricanes' championship run. He took over for starter Frederik Andersen midway through Game 3 with the series tied 1-1, posted a .908 save percentage over his next three starts and delivered a shutout when the franchise needed it most. His 22-save shutout Sunday was the first clinching-game shutout in the Stanley Cup Final since [verify before publishing].
Hall gave Carolina an early lead with his seventh goal of the playoffs, burying a blast from the left side past Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart less than four minutes into the first period. Blake, a right wing who has emerged as one of the team's most reliable contributors, doubled the lead in the second period to put the Hurricanes firmly in control.
Vegas, which entered Game 6 without center William Karlsson — lost to a left arm injury sustained in Game 5 — could not generate enough sustained pressure against Bussi to threaten a comeback. Hart, who allowed four or more goals in each of the first five games of the Final, was pulled for an extra attacker in the game's final minutes before Blake's empty-netter [note: correct scorer per the information provided — confirm against live box score] sealed the championship.
Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes' captain, scored in five consecutive games earlier in the series and anchored a Carolina team that went wire-to-wire as the Eastern Conference's top seed. Staal's steady hand down the stretch echoed the type of veteran leadership Brind'Amour provided from the same role two decades ago.
The victory completed a dominant postseason for Carolina. The Hurricanes swept the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers in the first two rounds, eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in five games in the Eastern Conference Final, and then outlasted a Vegas team that swept the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final.
The franchise's roots stretch back to 1972, when it was founded as the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. The Whalers won the inaugural Avco World Trophy in 1973 before eventually joining the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers. The franchise relocated to Raleigh in 1997 and rebranded as the Hurricanes, playing its first two seasons out of Greensboro while a permanent arena was being built in the state capital.
Carolina reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 2002 but fell to the Detroit Red Wings. Four years later, Brind'Amour and the Hurricanes broke through. Now, 20 years after that, Brind'Amour has done it again from the other side of the bench.
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