Hurricanes look to ‘take care of business at home’ in Game 5 of Cup Final

LAS VEGAS -- The Stanley Cup Final has become a best-of-3 series.

The Carolina Hurricanes like where they stand against the Vegas Golden Knights, regaining home-ice advantage heading into Game 5 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Carolina evened the series 2-2 with a 5-3 win at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

“Obviously last night’s win was a huge win for us,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said Wednesday before they boarded a flight home. “At the same time, now we’ve got to take care of business at home. That’s all you’re focusing on. You can’t really focus too far ahead of yourself; you just want to have a good start (in Game 5) and go from there.”

The biggest question heading into Game 5 is the same as the one prior to the game Tuesday -- who starts in goal for Carolina?

Brandon Bussi made 18 saves in Game 4, his first career Stanley Cup Playoff start. Frederik Andersen, who had started every playoff game for the Hurricanes to that point, was a healthy scratch and Pyotr Kochetkov served as the backup. 

“We’re not going to discuss the lineup,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said Wednesday. “We haven’t even met as a staff or anything to figure out what we’re doing. It’s too early in the morning.” 

Regardless, the Hurricanes are delighted to be two wins away from winning the Cup after banging on the door for so many seasons. They lost in the second round of the playoffs in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and in the Eastern Conference Final in 2023 and 2025 before breaking through this season. Carolina hasn’t won the Cup since 2006.  

“From a team standpoint, it’s been a ride. It’s been fun,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “This is what you play for as a team. You work so hard together, and when you get to this chance it’s just exciting.”

Slavin has played an important role this postseason. The gold medal winner with Team USA at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games plays on Carolina’s top defense pair alongside Jalen Chatfield, and is averaging 23:41 of ice time per game, which ranks second on the Hurricanes behind defenseman K'Andre Miller (24:17). 

Slavin has four assists in 17 games.  

“He’s one of our most valuable players for sure,” Brind’Amour said. “The offensive guys kind of tend to get all the attention, but I always value stopping a goal as much as scoring a goal. It’s hard to equate it. You score a goal, you obviously score a goal, but how often does he make a play that defends one or prevents one, and that’s equally important. We value him quite highly obviously.”

Slavin has been tasked with many of the tougher matchups, mainly against the Golden Knights’ more skilled forwards.

Vegas forward Mitch Marner leads the NHL in the playoffs with 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) and is plus-15 in 20 games. Center Jack Eichel has 20 points (two goals, 18 assists) in 20 games, and forward Brett Howden leads the League with 14 goals. 

“For us, I think our biggest key is making sure we have all five guys back and forwards are backchecking, and they’re doing a good job of that,” Slavin said. “As a (defense) core, we have to make sure we’re not letting guys get behind us and when we can take away time and space we have to, because they don’t need much space at all to make some pretty dynamic plays. For us, it’s just making sure we’re really tight and being hard to play against.”

Carolina (53-22-7) finished first in the East this season but needed a strong performance Tuesday to avoid having its season on the brink of elimination. The Hurricanes held a 3-1 lead in the first period but allowed two goals in the second period. Captain Jordan Staal scored a highlight-reel goal at 6:32 of the third period to put the Hurricanes back in front, and Nikolaj Ehlers scored into an empty net with 55 seconds left for the 5-3 final.

Carolina has not lost two consecutive games since Jan.12-13. Game 6 will be at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday, and Game 7, if necessary, would be back home on June 17. 

“I think we’ve just been able of doing a good job, win or lose, (focusing) on the next game and pouring into that,” Brind’Amour said. “The players have done a great job of preparing night in and night out, and that’s what’s probably given us the opportunity to have that happen.”