RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Nineteen players have registered a point for the Carolina Hurricanes during their nearly perfect playoff run. The Vegas Golden Knights have gotten at least one from 22 players on their way to the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n
Carolina has 12 different goal-scorers. Vegas has 15. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re deep, we\u2019re deep, so it\u2019ll be a good matchup,\u201d Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb said.<\/p>\n
A matchup so close on paper that the Hurricanes are a very slight favorite. They’ve won 12 of 13 games through three rounds and have home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n
But after NHL-best Colorado got swept by Vegas, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said he and his team \u201cran into a buzzsaw.\u201d The Western Conference Final was one-sided with the Golden Knights dominating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey dismantled Colorado,\u201d player-turned-ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s ever such a thing as perfect, but whatever next door to perfect was, that\u2019s how they played in that series. It\u2019s what they are. This is their team, and they\u2019re healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
So are the Hurricanes, which could lead to an epic series.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen is the Stanley Cup Final?<\/p>\n
Games 1 and 2 are Tuesday and Thursday night in Raleigh, where the fanbase full of Caniacs has been waiting years for the team’s first trip to the final since 2006. Carolina won it all that year, with now-coach Rod Brind’Amour as captain.<\/p>\n
Games 3 and 4 are Saturday night and June 9 at the arena on the Las Vegas Strip that has become known as the Fortress. The Golden Knights hoisted the Cup on home ice there three years ago.<\/p>\n
If necessary, Game 5 is June 11 at Carolina and Game 6 is June 14 at Vegas. If a Game 7 is required, at Carolina, it would be June 17.<\/p>\n
Every game will air in the U.S. on ABC and in Canada in English on CBC and Sportsnet and in French on TVA Sports.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWho are the stars to watch?<\/p>\n
With Vegas, Mitch Marner has gone further in the playoffs than ever before in his NHL career, which included only first- and second-round exits during nine years in Toronto. Marner leads all scorers with 21 points.<\/p>\n
Not far behind is Jack Eichel with 18, three years removed from playing a big role in the Golden Knights win the Cup. And he’s just as good at keeping the puck out of his team’s net.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack Eichel might be the best 200-foot center in the game right now,\u201d 2003 Cup champion Mike Rupp said.<\/p>\n
Vegas has gotten timely saves from Carter Hart, especially in the West final when he stopped 118 of the 125 shots he faced. Carolina has ridden goaltender Frederik Andersen to this point, counting on him to come up big on quality chances while outshooting opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so strong mentally,\u201d said retired goalie Cory Schneider, who like Rupp now is with NHL Network. \u201cHe\u2019s able to play games where he only sees eight or nine shots and make the save he has to make. Some goalies really struggle with your team possessing the puck all game and now you get that breakaway and you\u2019ve got to find a way to make a save.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWho are the X-factors in the Cup final?<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes\u2019 best players during the regular season were Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov. Their second line of Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake has led them here as their leading scorers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of times, coaches throw three names together and it looks like it\u2019s going to work and it doesn\u2019t,\u201d Ferraro said. \u201cStankoven and Blake and Hall, they fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Vegas, the standout scoring stars of the playoffs have been Brett Howden and Pavel Dorofeyev, with 10 goals apiece. The Golden Knights also have three players \u2014 Marner, captain Mark Stone and defenseman Shea Theodore \u2014 who lost in the Olympic final with Canada. Jarvis was also on that team.<\/p>\n
Eichel, teammate Noah Hanifin and Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin have the chance to pull off the gold medal-Stanley Cup double after winning in Milan with the U.S.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Mark Anderson in Vegas contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Nineteen players have registered a point for the Carolina Hurricanes during their nearly perfect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[37837,1251,149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":["post-587912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-golden-knights","tag-goldenknights","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-vegas","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-vegasgoldenknights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116669979272915818","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}