LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jordan Staal became the first player in 44 years to score a goal in each of the first four games of the Stanley Cup Final, helping set the tone as the Carolina Hurricanes took a 3-1 lead in the first period over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Mike Bossy in 1982 with the New York Islanders against the Vancouver Canucks was the last player to pull that off. Staal is the ninth to do it.
Trailing the series 2-1, the Hurricanes played like the more
desperate team in also receiving goals from Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake. The goal from Blake came just after the power play expired, but Staal's occurred with a man advantage.
Brandon Bussi started in place of Frederik Andersen in goal and made five saves. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour told ABC that Andersen, who did not dress, needed the rest. Pyotr Kochetkov is the backup goalie with Andersen serving as the emergency goaltender.
“Let (Andersen) rest,” Brind'Amour said. “Give him as many days here as we can.”
Mark Stone, taking a stretch pass from Shea Theodore for a breakaway, was the only Golden Knights player to the puck past Bussi. That is until Brayden McNabb also did it, but the puck didn't cross until the first-period clock had expired.
Carter Hart has made 11 saves.
The Hurricanes outplayed the Golden Knights in the period, outshooting Vegas 14-6. But the Golden Knights, according to Natural Stat Trick, had four high-danger chances to three for Carolina.
The difference was the Hurricanes took advantage of their chances.
Brind’Amour replaced Andersen with Bussi trailing 4-0 after two periods in Game 2 on Saturday, and he saved the first 18 shots he faced as the Hurricanes mounted a furious rally. Bussi failed to save the 19th shot when Theodore knocked the puck off the boards and it bounced off Bussi's skate for a Golden Knights victory.
Should the Golden Knights win and take a 3-1 series lead, they will be in an almost unbeatable position. Teams with such an advantage in the final are 38-1, the one defeat occurring 84 years ago when Detroit lost a 3-0 lead and fell to Toronto.
A Hurricanes victory would not only even the best-of-seven series, but regain home-ice advantage with potentially two of the three remaining games in Carolina.
Good luck trying to predict where this series will go. What was largely expected to be a high-checking, low-scoring championship round has been wide open at times, with each team capitalizing on the other's mistakes. The teams have combined to score 25 goals, the highest total through three games in the final since the New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars had 30 in 1981.
There have been blown leads of at least two goals in each game. Vegas rallied from such a deficit in Game 1 and Carolina did it in Game 2.
Then came the real doozy in Game 3 when the Golden Knights led 4-0 well into the third period before the Hurricanes scored three goals in a record 39 seconds and eventually forced overtime before Theodore's winning goal.
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