The Carolina Hurricanes put on a clinic as they defeated the Las Vegas Golden Knights, 3-0 on Sunday night to win the 2026 Stanley Cup Championship.
The Hurricanes had a dominating playoff season as they finished with a 16-3 record.
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Taylor Hall started things off this night much like he did throughout the postseason as he got a step on the defense and rifled in a shot past Vegas goaltender Carter Hart to make it 1-0, just three minutes and change into the game.
In the second period, the Canes started to impose their will and held the Knights to just three shots on goal. The “junkyard dawg” second line of Hall, Stankoven, and Blake went to work and held the puck in the Vegas zone for quite some time until Stankoven found Blake who had a slightly deflected shot go in to make it, 2-0.
Jackson Blake led the team in scoring these playoffs with 20 points, (7G 13A) with Hall right behind him at 19 points, (7G 12A).
The score remained that way as team defense and some timely goaltending by Brandon Bussi held back the Golden Knights until Nikolaj Ehlers scored an empty-netter to seal the deal.
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Jordan Staal won the Conn Smythe and the 37 year old was the oldest winner of the MVP award. Staal led the group in so many ways but one important stat was that he scored goals in five straight games in the Final.
There are countless stories of how different players contributed in their own ways. Jaccob Slavin, K’Andre Miller, Sean Walker, and the rest of the team were all special but we will go into more detail about them later.
There will be endless interviews, pictures, and articles to see and read now from all over. We will try to do our best to do our part here.
It was the first time the Golden Knights were shutout this postseason.
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The Victory Parade is scheduled for Saturday in downtown Raleigh. More details about that later.
Here are a few things of interest I found online.
Aagin, I could do this all night but I need to publish this now.
I want to thank all the Canes Country writers, members, and readers for a great year. It has been a record breaking season as far as comments and page hits. We will try to keep it up through what will be a busy and short offseason!
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