Vegas drew first blood and for a second it felt like the Golden Knights were going to flip the building. Eichel was doing Eichel things, the power play looked dangerous, and the series was suddenly threatening to tilt. Then Carolina remembered who they were.
Jordan Staal answered back in the 1st period to wipe out the Vegas lead.
Staal has now scored in all 5 Stanley Cup Final games, which is the kind of stat line you usually only see in old YouTube montages. The Canes captain has been the heartbeat of this run, and his early equalizer settled the building down and handed the momentum back to Carolina.
The streak is officially absurd — 5 games, 5 goals for the captain.
From there it was the Svechnikov show. He buried a power-play goal in the 2nd to put Carolina ahead 2-1, and the PNC Arena crowd hit triple-digit decibels. The Knights never really got their feet back under them after that.
Svechnikov's go-ahead power-play strike flipped the game for good.
Aho added the kind of skill play that makes Ryan Whitney lose his mind on the broadcast, and Svechnikov struck again in the 3rd to make it a 3-goal lead. Even Portnoy's classic '2-goal lead is the worst in hockey' tweet didn't get to age — Carolina just kept piling on. Final score 4-2, series lead 3-2, and the Canes are officially one win from the Cup.
Brandon Bussi's family in the stands, in full Canes gear, trying to process what's about to happen.
That clip is the whole vibe of this run. A goalie whose family is choking up in the stands, a 2006 Cup champion shotgunning beers on a Barstool set in a bathrobe, and a captain who refuses to stop scoring. One more win and Raleigh loses its mind.
Mike Commodore, 2006 champ, is already in full party mode.