LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a Stanley Cup Final filled with more twists and turns than a Six Flags roller coaster, it’s difficult to imagine what more could be in store when the Carolina Hurricanes visit the Vegas Golden Knights for Game 4 on Tuesday.
There certainly is plenty at stake.
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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 Saturday night’s 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. Carolina eventually forced overtime, but the Golden Knights won in double OT when Shea Theodore bounced a puck off the boards that caromed off goalie Brandon Bussi’s skate.
Because of course it did.
Bussi, who hadn’t played in two months, entered in the third period after coach Rod Brind’Amour had seen enough of Frederik Andersen. The Golden Knights couldn’t figure out Bussi until that final wacky shot, so he might start Tuesday. Brind’Amour said he knows who will start, but isn’t letting on.
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