The Carolina Hurricanes finally did it. After three agonizing playoff collapses in the Eastern Conference final under Rod Brind'Amour, they buried Montreal 6-1 on Friday night and secured their first Stanley Cup final appearance since 2006.
A dominant first period set the tone early. Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven, and Eric Robinson all found the net before most fans had finished their first intermission beer. Jackson Blake and Shayne Gostisberely added second-period strikes to push the lead to 5-0 heading into the third. Seth Jarvis added an empty-netter late, and Frederik Andersen carried the shutout deep into the final period, an emotional night for the goaltender just a day after his agent Claude Lemieux took his own life.
The win capped a stunning reversal from Game 1, when the Hurricanes lost 6-2. Most teams that stumble that badly early don't recover. This one didn't panic. Carolina won four straight games, including back-to-back overtime thrillers against Montreal before a dominant 4-0 road victory on Wednesday.
The Hurricanes accomplished something rare in the modern playoffs. They reached the Stanley Cup final with only one loss, making them the first team to do so since 1983 and the only squad to achieve the feat since the league switched to best-of-seven series in all four playoff rounds in 1987.
Brind'Amour's path here was lined with ghosts. In eight years as coach, he'd guided Carolina to three Eastern Conference finals. They went 1-12 in those matchups, losing sweeps to Boston in 2019 and Florida in 2023 before falling in five games to the Panthers last year. Each loss chipped away at the core, each disappointment deepening the wound.
That history made Friday's celebration on ice especially raw. Jordan Martinook, a veteran forward who'd endured all those playoff heartaches, struggled to compose himself in the locker room afterward. "A lot of years with a lot of pain," he said. "It's been a crazy journey in my time here, but this team, it's been really special."
Even the newcomers felt it. Defenseman K'Andre Miller, acquired over the summer as the missing piece, sat near the ice after the game holding his newborn son, shaking his head at the moment unfolding around him.
For Brind'Amour, the feeling carried its own strange weight. As captain, he'd lifted the Stanley Cup in 2006 when Carolina beat Edmonton in seven games. Nearly two decades later, he stood behind the Prince of Wales Trophy wearing a smile earned through years of setbacks and second chances.
Montreal arrived in this series as a young, talented team that had already pulled off shocking playoff escapes. The Canadiens won Game 7 road contests against Tampa Bay and Buffalo to reach the conference final ahead of schedule. But against Carolina's stifling defense, Montreal never found its rhythm. By the second period of Game 5, with Carolina leading 4-0, the home crowd was chanting mockingly, then later pleading: "We want the Cup! We want the Cup!"
Now Vegas awaits. The Hurricanes have their chance at the first Stanley Cup in franchise history since relocating from Hartford before the 1997-98 season.
Author James Rodriguez: "Nineteen seasons of playoff frustration doesn't disappear after one series, but this Hurricanes team looked like they belonged on this stage from Game 2 forward."
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