The Stanley Cup will be in the building on Sunday, but the bigger question is whether the Carolina Hurricanes leave Las Vegas with a championship in hand. They hold a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Final and are one win away from their first title in 20 years.
Carolina has won the past two games, and that swing has pushed the Golden Knights into a must-win position at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas has not faced elimination yet in this postseason, while the Hurricanes are 3-0 in potential clinching games.
Carolina’s closing chance
Jordan Martinook said he has imagined lifting the Cup for years, and that feeling is now closer than ever for the Hurricanes. The team has not lost two in a row since mid-January, a run that helps explain how they reached this point.
That confidence will be tested by a Vegas team that knows exactly what is at stake. As Brayden McNabb put it, “What an opportunity. Win a game at home and go for a Game 7.”
Vegas needs a cleaner night
The Golden Knights need more from goalie Carter Hart and a sharper effort in front of him. Hart has become an unwanted piece of history, becoming the first goalie in Stanley Cup Final history to allow at least four goals in each of the first five games of a series.
Penalty-kill problems have only made the challenge harder. Carolina is 6-for-12 on the power play since the third period of Game 2, so discipline and structure will matter from the opening puck drop.
William Karlsson’s absence adds pressure
Vegas will also be without center William Karlsson, who left Game 5 with what appeared to be a left arm injury and will not play in Game 6. He has been one of the team’s strongest defensive forwards and a key penalty-kill piece.
Karlsson has four points in the series and nine points in the playoffs, and he has centered Vegas’ most productive line with Mitch Marner and Brett Howden. Marner called it “obviously a big miss,” while also pointing to the team’s season-long “next-man-up mentality.”
Teams leading a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final 3-2 have won Game 6 more often than not, going 27-18 overall. That record includes an 8-2 mark since 2012, which makes Sunday’s game feel like a pressure test on both sides of the ice.
