Brandon Bussi stopped all 22 shots to backstop the Carolina to a 3-0 Game 6 decision over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena as the Hurricanes won their second Stanley Cup in dominating fashion, finishing the postseason with a stellar 16-3 record.
Taylor Hall got behind the defense and fired the puck by Carter Hart from the left circle after receiving a stretch pass from Jaccob Slavin 3:47 into the first period to put the Hurricanes in control.
Jackson Blake, who had the secondary assist on Hall’s goal, took a centering fed from Logan Stankoven and beat Hart with a snap shot that ticked off the stick of Mitch Marner with 6:29 remaining in the second.
The two-point performance gave the 22-year-old Blake the team scoring lead with 20 points.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored the final goal of the 2025-26 season unassisted into an empty net with 1:08 left on the clock to clinch it for Carolina, who won the final three games of the series to claim its first crown since 2006.
Captain Jordan Staal won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player to his team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Staal had six goals in the Stanley Cup Final, including tying the NHL record with goals in five consecutive games, and was dominant on face-offs.
Bussi, who replaced Frederik Andersen in the third period of Game 3, finished the series with a 3-1 record, 1.60 goals againt average, and .931 save percentage, and capped off his amazing run with his first career postseason shutout. Bussi’s shutout is the ninth in a Cup-clinching game in the past fifty years, and first since Andrei Vasilevskiy’s in 2021.
Congratulations to the Hurricanes, they certainly earned it, and were the best team in the playoffs.