Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart has gone into the history books in the Stanley Cup Final for the wrong reasons after Game 5. He also ended up on the losing side against the Carolina Hurricanes, falling behind for the first time in the series.

NHL News revealed the unwanted record associated with the 27-year-old on X, despite his overall decent outing.

“Carter Hart is the first goalie to concede 4+ goals in each of the first 5 games of a Stanley Cup Final,” they wrote.

The Hurricanes have scored 21 goals compared to 18 for the Golden Knights across the first five games. Hart allowed 20 of Carolina's 21 goals (excluding an empty-netter), a staggering 95% of the Hurricanes' output.

He has had 139 save attempts in those five games, saving 119 of them for a decent save percentage of .856. His primary Hurricanes counterpart, Frederik Andersen, 36, had bigger problems in the Stanley Cup Final until getting dropped to the bench.

Andersen last played till the start of the third period of Game 3 after allowing four goals in the second period. He has had 65 save attempts during that time, completing 53 saves for a save percentage of .815.

Brandon Bussi made his first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after replacing Andersen in the third period of Game 3. The 27-year-old has had 65 save attempts thus far, saving 59 of them for a very impressive save percentage of .907.

So how did Carolina beat Vegas to take the series lead?

On Thursday, June 11, the Carolina Hurricanes had their best game in the Stanley Cup Final this year. They beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in front of their home fans at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, taking the series to 3-2.

Vegas opened the scoring in Game 5 through Pavel Dorofeyev at 6:52 in the first period, to go into the break with a 1-0 lead. After that, Carolina struck back with an equaliser through their captain Jordan Staal at 11:46 in the first period.

However, the Canes found true second-period success for the first time in the series. Instead of imploding like the last four games, they actually took the lead away from Vegas.

Andrei Svechnikov made it 2-1 at 11:58 in the second period before Sebastian Aho extended the lead for the Hurricanes to 3-1 at 17:51 versus the Golden Knights.

In the third period, Svechnikov got his second goal of the night at 11:08 to put them in a commanding 4-1 lead. While the Knights led the Canes in shot attempts 25-24, their conversion was a key issue on the night.

Now the stakes have climbed for Vegas. Game 6 at home in T-Mobile Arena on Sunday, June 14, is now a must-win.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi