Jordan Staal’s two-goal night carried the Carolina Hurricanes through another swing-filled Stanley Cup Final game, a 5-3 Game 4 win over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday that squared the series at 2-2.
SEO Title: Jordan Staal lifts Hurricanes past Golden Knights in Game 4
SEO Description: Jordan Staal scored twice as Carolina beat Vegas 5-3 in Game 4, evening the Stanley Cup Final at two games apiece before Thursday’s Game 5.
Hurricanes level the Final behind Staal
Carolina will bring home ice back into the equation for Game 5, set for Thursday at Lenovo Center. Puck drop is 8 p.m. ET, with ABC, SN, TVAS and CBC carrying the game.
The Final has now effectively become a three-game sprint after four games in which neither club has been able to protect a multi-goal advantage. The Hurricanes led 3-1, watched Vegas erase that margin, then got the decisive goal from their captain early in the third.
- Staal scored twice, including the winner at 6:32 of the third period.
- Nikolaj Ehlers finished with a goal and two assists.
- Jackson Blake posted a goal and an assist, while Logan Stankoven opened the scoring.
- Brandon Bussi stopped 18 shots in his first NHL postseason start.
- William Karlsson had a goal and an assist for Vegas; Mark Stone and Brett Howden also scored.
- Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart made 23 saves.
Staal has scored five times in the series and has found the net in every game. He is the first player since New York Islanders forward Mike Bossy in 1982 to score in each of the opening four games of a Stanley Cup Final. Since the NHL’s 1968 expansion, only four players have achieved the feat.
“It’s been an emotional series, with plenty of turns,” Staal said. “We did not like our second period, but we came out for the third, stayed patient and played the way we needed to play. We kept working the puck down low and did a better job keeping it away from our net.”
A first-period jump, then another Vegas rally
Carolina came out with the sharper edge and scored twice in the opening 3:28. Stankoven struck from the slot at 1:06, and Blake followed at 3:28 to put the visitors up 2-0.
Stone put Vegas on the board with a breakaway at 7:22, but Staal restored the two-goal cushion on the power play at 12:48. He collected a rebound in the slot and made it 3-1.
“I’ve been preaching getting to the net for years,” Staal said. “That’s where good things tend to happen.”
Vegas pushed back in the second. Karlsson hammered a one-timer from the left circle at 4:22, trimming the deficit to one. Howden tied it at 17:08, scoring his NHL-leading 14th goal of the playoffs.
Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore pointed to puck management after the loss.
“We got ourselves back in it, but the overall game wasn’t good enough,” Theodore said. “There were too many turnovers, including some from me. We have to clean that up.”
Staal capitalizes on Vegas breakdown
The winning sequence began with a Vegas turnover and a near miss for Carolina. Seth Jarvis broke in alone at 6:24 of the third, but Hart turned him aside with his blocker.
Jarvis regained possession behind the Vegas net but gave it away. The Golden Knights had an opportunity to clear the zone, only for Brayden McNabb’s pass to land on Ehlers’ stick in the left circle. Ehlers quickly fed Staal, who lost his balance while finishing from the crease area as he fell forward.
Vegas coach John Tortorella saw the sequence as a preventable gift.
“The difficult part is that they did not have to earn that winning goal,” Tortorella said. “Hart makes a big stop after the turnover, then we make another mistake and leave the net front open. You cannot give away a play like that in the third period.”
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said the play captured the unpredictability of the series. Jarvis appeared headed for a prime scoring chance, then the Hurricanes briefly lost the puck before Staal recovered the moment.
“That’s the kind of series this has been,” Brind’Amour said. “One thing happens, then another right after it. There have been sequences you don’t normally see stacked together.”
Ehlers sealed the result with an empty-net goal from the far end at 19:05.
Vegas had late chances to answer before that finish. Jack Eichel struck the crossbar, and the Golden Knights also hit a post in the third period.
“We had chances after getting even and thought we were playing well,” Vegas forward Colton Sissons said. “We just could not get the next one.”
Bussi gets the win as Andersen sits
Bussi entered the crease after Frederik Andersen, Carolina’s starter for the first 16 playoff games, was listed as a healthy scratch. The 18-save victory made Bussi only the third goalie of the expansion era to make his postseason debut as a starter in the Stanley Cup Final.
- Andrei Vasilevskiy first started a playoff game in the 2015 Final, doing so in Game 4.
- Jussi Markkanen made his first postseason start in Game 2 of the 2006 Final.
- Bussi is the third goalie in NHL history to earn a win in his first playoff start during a Final, joining Hank Bassen in 1961 and Alfie Moore in 1938.
At 37, Staal also became the oldest player with a two-goal Stanley Cup Final game since Mark Recchi scored twice for Boston in 2011 at age 43.
Now the Hurricanes captain is looking only at Thursday and the two wins Carolina still needs.
“This is a good time to get hot,” Staal said.
