LAS VEGAS (AP) — Carolina Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen did not dress, meaning Brandon Bussi gets the start against the Vegas Golden Knights for Tuesday's Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Bussi, who has never started against the Golden Knights, led the team onto the ice for pregame warmups, and backup Pyotr Kochetkov also was in uniform.
The Golden Knights lead the series 2-1.
No reason was given for why Andersen did not dress.
Andersen could have
been hurt when Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev skated into the goaltender in the second period of Saturday's 5-4 double-overtime victory by Vegas. Barbashev made contact with Andersen's head and neck areas. The puck went into the net, but the goal was successfully challenged by the Hurricanes for interference.
Even so, Andersen stayed in for the remaining 16:06 of the period, so there was no indication at the time he was injured.
Trailing 4-0 after two periods, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour replaced Andersen with Bussi, who saved the first 18 shots he faced as the Hurricanes mounted a furious rally. Bussi failed to save the 19th shot when Vegas' Shea 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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