Golden Knights take ‘simple’ approach to Game 6 against Hurricanes

LAS VEGAS -- Saturday marked the three-year anniversary of the Vegas Golden Knights winning their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.

How did they mark the occasion?

By working to find ways to keep their hopes alive to win a second.

In order to do that, the Golden Knights will have to win two consecutive games starting with Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The Hurricanes are up 3-2 in the best-of-7 series and can hoist the Cup unless Vegas can find a way to stave off elimination and a force Game 7 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

“It’s obvious it’s a really important game for us,” said forward Ivan Barbashev, who was a member of the 2023 champion Golden Knights. “We want to do everything we can to force a seventh and deciding game.

“I think it’s up to us just to come to the rink and be ready to go. The game itself is going to itself show a result at the end. I think the group is pretty confident about tomorrow and just trying to prepare mentally.”

To Barbashev’s point, even after the optional practice Vegas had Saturday there was a quiet swagger in the dressing room when the players met with the media. With 12 on the roster having been part of the championship won on June 13, 2023, there was no evidence of nerves, pressure, or the moment being too big for them.

“It’s simple: go win a game,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “It’s exciting. It’s fun. 

“Win a game, and go to Carolina for Game 7.”

McNabb, fellow defenseman Shea Theodore, forward Reilly Smith and forward William Karlsson were members of the 2017-18 expansion Golden Knights and have seen both sides of these elimination games, having lost in the 2018 Cup Final to the Washington Capitals before winning the title against the Florida Panthers five years later.

Unfortunately, Karlsson will be unavailable for Game 6, and likely for the remainder of the series after favoring his left arm/wrist Thursday, an ailment that knocked him out midway through the second period of Game 5. His absence means coach John Tortorella will have to mix up his lines, including the possibility of shifting Mitch Marner to center.

Marner played there for much of the season when Karlsson was out with a lower-body injury. When Karlsson returned, he centered a line with Marner and Brett Howden that at times has been Vegas’s best this postseason.

“It obviously (stinks) losing Will, but it’s a next-man-up mentality,” Marner said. “So, we’ve just got to be ready to go. It’s obviously a tough hole to fill in a way, but at the same time everyone on the ice has to do a better job defensive-wise helping out and making sure we take advantage of offensive chances.”

Whether it’s Smith or Brandon Saad who replaces Karlsson in the lineup, it’s not going to matter if the Golden Knights don’t improve their goals against.

To that end, Carter Hart became the first goalie in Stanley Cup Final history to allow at least four goals in each of the first five games of the series. The 27-year-old has an .856 save percentage and 3.70 goals-against average thus far against the Hurricanes, but the Golden Knights as a whole will have to be better in their own end.

“I haven’t been the best in this series, and I’ll be better the next game,” Hart said.

He’ll have to be in order to make an honest man of his coach.

Remember when Tortorella vowed after the 4-2 loss in Game 5 on Thursday that Vegas would be back for a Game 7? He even said he was leaving his clothes at the team’s hotel in Raleigh.

The only way those predictions will come to fruition is if Hart and the Golden Knights find a way to tighten up defensively. 

If not, their Stanley Cup aspirations will be over and Tortorella’s laundry will be stranded three time zones to the east.