The Stanley Cup is coming back to North Carolina, which is now officially a hockey state in addition to being a Tobacco Road basketball state.
The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 Sunday night, June 14, to win the 2026 Stanley Cup Final in six games and give the franchise its second championship.
The Hurricanes, who won their first Stanley Cup in 2006, ended a 20-year championship drought with a shutout in Las Vegas and a postseason run that left no doubt that this was one of the best teams in hockey.
Rookie goalie Brandon Bussi stopped all 22 shots he faced in Game 6, giving the Hurricanes the kind of closeout performance that makes for instant franchise history.
Taylor Hall got Carolina on the board early, scoring in the first period, and Jackson Blake added another goal in the second. Nikolaj Ehlers put the game away with an empty-net goal, setting off a celebration two decades in the making.
For Hurricanes fans, it’s been a very long wait.
Carolina has been one of the NHL’s most consistent teams for years under head coach Rod Brind’Amour; however, the Canes have repeatedly fallen short in the playoffs.
This year, though, they finally broke through.
Brind’Amour, who captained the Hurricanes to the 2006 Stanley Cup, has now won one as the team’s coach.
Captain Jordan Staal was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Staal, 37, scored in five of the six games in the Stanley Cup Final and was one of the emotional leaders of a Carolina team that played its best hockey when the pressure was highest.
The Hurricanes didn’t just win the Cup. They took it in grand style.
Carolina finished the playoffs with a 16-3 record, sweeping its first two series and then beating Vegas in six games in the Final. The Hurricanes did it with defense, depth, pressure and a style that has become familiar to anyone who has watched Brind’Amour’s teams over the years.
The Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in 2023, had a chance to force a Game 7 – but Carolina never let them get comfortable. Vegas was held scoreless in the biggest game of the season.
For Raleigh and the rest of North Carolina, the win means the Stanley Cup will once again make its way through the state.
The team’s first championship in 2006 helped cement the Hurricanes’ place in North Carolina sports. This one comes after years of sellout crowds, playoff heartbreak, high expectations and the steady growth of a fan base that has made Lenovo Center one of the loudest buildings in the NHL.
A championship parade in Raleigh is expected, with details to be announced shortly.
Greensboro got slammed during the broadcast….
JD, what did they say.
Messier recalled playing against the canes when they were in Greensboro in front of a crowd he estimated at 2,000 and wondered if the team would make it.
Thx!
Rod Brind’Amour day is in order. A constant believer in his team and himself should justify a non government day celebrating him
Way to go ‘Canes!
Carolina Hurricanes win national title
Carolina Panthers put together a resurgent season and got us back to the playoffs
Charlotte Hornetts didn’t make the playoffs but did have one of the best single season turnarounds in the NBA giving hope to next year.
Carolina sports are headed in the right direction!
LET’S GO CANES!!!!!!! HELL YEAH!!!!!
This year, the ‘Canes proved themselves to be the best team in the NFL, and by far. Coming back from a 1-2 deficit at Vegas, the evened the series @ 2-2. Playing the defending champions, it was not easy.
NHL
an obvious typo
i was there ! that big fat guy in photo lost his contact lens then all his buddies gingerly looked around but couldn’t find it – then everybody left happy for some reason ? hockey resembles the ice capades except the skaters are ugly & lack front teeth
I am ugly and lack front teeth. Life is beautiful.
i aged out of the sport. soccer should redesign to resemble hockey with a smaller field, 2 foot high rebound ‘boards’ around perimeter & > shots on goal ? 3 ‘shifts’ with rest breaks ?