Hurricanes Hold Off Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 5, Take 3-2 Series LeadRALEIGH – Brandon Bussi made 22 saves as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night, grabbing a 3-2 series advantage.

RALEIGH – Brandon Bussi made 22 saves as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night, grabbing a 3-2 series advantage.

“Doing it at his age just says a lot about him,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “He’s our guy and he’s our warrior, and I’m really happy for him.”

“Bus Man” has been great,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “It’s not an easy job stepping in and doing what he did, and he’s going to have to keep doing that if you want a chance. He’s a big goalie that battles hard and grinds and finds ways to get wins, so we’re happy with any goalie that’s in our organization that’s in the net.”

Carolina overcame an early deficit, rallying with four consecutive goals to secure the victory.

Jordan Staal broke through in the opening frame, scoring for the sixth straight game to ignite the comeback.

In the second period, Andrei Svechnikov recorded a power-play goal sandwiched around a strike by Sebastian Aho, giving Carolina a 3-1 lead entering the third.

“Getting on the scoresheet, he knows he needs to do that,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s playing all the power play, he’s getting all that time to cash in. It doesn’t mean you’re not playing well. All playoffs he’s, I think, played really well. But, man, if we can get that out of him, you know, that’s just a big bonus for our team.”

“For the most part we played pretty good,” Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “It’s just they got momentum off the penalties.”

Svechnikov added an insurance goal in the third period, extending the lead to 4-1.

“This is the biggest win in my life, personally,” Svechnikov said. “Thank God we won that game and obviously all focus right now in our mind is we’ve got one more win to get here.”

The Golden Knights’ duo of Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice, opening the first period with a goal for a 1-0 lead and adding a late third-period marker to finish the scoring at 4-2.

“I mean, I think anytime you give the other team’s best players an opportunity to get on the ice on the power play and feel good about themselves — and I think, obviously, you’re a man down, right? So, you stack that up — it can definitely get challenging and tire guys out, but we’ve still got to do a job there,” Golden Knights forward Nic Dowd said. “The game is still 1-1, even 2-1 it’s still quite within reach. So, like I said, I was happy about a lot of things. We played well for the majority of the game.”

That was as close as Vegas would get.

“I thought we were still doing some good things, still getting chances, obviously,” Vegas center Jack Eichel said. “They scored, so yeah, I mean, they were able to get some momentum off of it, and you know, special teams is a big part of the game, and this time of year you got to be on the right side of it. Unfortunately, we weren’t.”

Game 6 is scheduled for Sunday in Las Vegas.

“We’re ready for it,” Stefan Leason said. “This team has been working all year for moments like these, and especially this moment.”

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