NHL Morning Skate: Stanley Cup Final Edition – June 5, 2026

June 5, 2026

* The 2026 Stanley Cup Final continues to produce NHL firsts with each contest as the Hurricanes drew even with an unforgettable finish to Game 2. This is the first championship series in League history to feature a multi-goal comeback win by each team through the first two games.

* Seth Jarvis capped the comeback, after the Golden Knights also tied the contest with 81 seconds left in regulation, and did so on the 24-year anniversary of the first Stanley Cup Final game in franchise history (and the club’s only other OT win in the Final).

* Game 2 also included a record-tying performance by Brett Howden, a goal by both captains in the final five minutes of regulation and ended as the second straight championship series to be tied after two contests.

ANOTHER HISTORIC FINISH SENDS FINAL TO VEGAS TIED AT 1-1

History was made for the second time in as many games in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final as the Hurricanes found themselves facing a 2-0 deficit with less than 10 minutes left on the scoreboard – and the same disadvantage looming in the series – but rallied to take a 3-2 lead of their own before the Golden Knights forced overtime with a tally in the final 90 seconds of regulation. In the extra frame, Seth Jarvis rose to the occasion with his first career playoff overtime goal to even the series at 1-1 on the 24-year anniversary of the first Stanley Cup Final game in franchise history and only other overtime goal in the Final for the club (Ron Francis).

* This is the first time across the 108 all-time Stanley Cup Final series that each team has staged a multi-goal comeback win within the first two contests. The only other Final to begin with consecutive multi-goal comeback wins, regardless of who won, was also in the Wild Card era (2014: LAK won both vs. NYR).

* Carolina became the first team in more than 80 years to win a Stanley Cup Final game after trailing by multiple goals in the final 10 minutes of the third period. Overall, they are the fourth team to do so following the 1944 Canadiens (Game 4 vs. CHI), 1936 Maple Leafs (Game 3 vs. DET) and 1931 Blackhawks (Game 3 at MTL).

* Overall, the Hurricanes posted the 12th multi-goal third-period comeback win in Stanley Cup Final history and first since the Kings in Game 2 of the 2014 Final. Carolina now has two such wins (also Game 1 in 2006 vs. EDM), joining Montreal (3x), Chicago (2x) and the NY Rangers (2x) as the only franchises with multiple. Only the Hurricanes and Canadiens (2x) have two such wins at home.

* This is the 32nd time a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final has been tied 1-1. In the previous 31 such series, the winner of Game 3 went on to win the Cup 24 times (.774). When the Game 3 win comes at home, teams have a series record of 10-5 (.667); when it comes on the road, teams are 14-2 in the series (.875).

GAME 2 WAS A TALE OF TWO GAMES

The Golden Knights were less than 10 minutes from becoming the first team in more than a dozen years to take a 2-0 series lead back home in the Stanley Cup Final, thanks in large part to playoff goals leader Brett Howden’s record-tying performance – but another goals leader, Carolina’s top producer Logan Stankoven, flipped the script to trigger the unforgettable finish.

* Howden scored his 12th and 13th goals of the postseason to match the Vegas record for most in a single postseason and surpass his total from the 2025-26 regular season (12 in 58 GP). Howden became the seventh player in NHL history to surpass his regular-season goal total in the ensuing postseason (min. 10 goals) and first since Jaden Schwartz with the 2019 Blues. Claude Lemieux accounts for three of thenine total instances and is the only player to do so multiple times.

* Stankoven then started Carolina’s rally with his 10th goal of the playoffs to tie Eric Staal (2009) for the second-most in franchise history behind the 12 scored by current head coach Rod Brind’Amour during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2006.

* Mark Jankowski followed up by picking the perfect time for his first playoff goal in a Carolina sweater and just the second postseason goal of his career (which also was a tying marker, for NSH in Game 4 of 2024 R1). Jankowski (52:46) tallied the latest tying goal in a Stanley Cup Final in Hurricanes history, besting the previous mark set by Shayne Gostisbehere (51:19) in Game 1 on Tuesday.

* Carolina then took its first lead when 37-year-old captain Jordan Staal became the second-oldest player in NHL history to score in the first two games of a Stanley Cup Final, following Larry Robinson with the 1989 Canadiens (2 GP).

* With the crowd now ecstatic and sensing a Hurricanes victory, visiting captain Mark Stone countered with yet another tying tally – the fifth of this series – to force the 101st overtime game in Stanley Cup Final history. Three of the past eight Stanley Cup Final games have featured a tying goal in the final 90 seconds of regulation – equal to the number of such goals across 152 Final games from Game 2 in 1999 to Game 1 in 2025.

* The Hurricanes and Golden Knights have combined for five tying goals so far this series, marking the second straight year and fifth time in NHL history that the Stanley Cup Final has had at least five tying goals through two games (8 in 1982, 6 in 2025, 5 in 2018 and 5 in 2010).

JARVY MAKES IT A PARTY IN CAROLINA

Six overtime games into these playoffs for the Hurricanes and they have had six different heroes, with Seth Jarvis – in front of family and friends – the latest to net the winner for a club that now has won eight straight OT games overall to last year. Vegas also entered with a perfect OT record this year, marking just the second time in Stanley Cup Playoffs history that teams both with overtime records of 3-0 or better went head-to-head (the other instance also involved Carolina).

* Jarvis became the sixth player on record to score an overtime goal on the power play in the Stanley Cup Final as Carolina became the fourth team in NHL history to post an overtime winning streak of at least six games in one year (third to start with a run of at least that length).

* The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs will go down as the fifth to require overtime in at least 14 of 15 series (also 2013, 2014, 2021 & 2023; excludes 2020 when there were more series). Overall, 21 games have required overtime – one more than the total from last year.

MORE FROM RALEIGH BEFORE WE HEAD WEST
A capacity crowd of 18,738 watched inside Lenovo Center, plus more at the club’s outdoor watch parties (and more still 2,300 miles away at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas). Before the game, approximately 8,000 fans arrived early to see the Dan + Shay concert outside the arena.

* 2006 Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward sounded the siren ahead of Game 2, almost 20 years to the day that he backstopped the Hurricanes to a 5-4 victory against the Oilers in Game 1 of the 2006 championship series. Dan Morgan, the president of football operations and general manager of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, was also a siren sounder for Game 2.

* The Stanley Cup paid a visit to Bill Belichick, head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team, before Game 2.

* Seth Jarvis’ friends, who have travelled to support the Hurricanes forward all across the globe – including going to Italy for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 – were at Lenovo Center for Game 2 sporting “DIY” denim jackets and celebrated Jarvis’ overtime winner. The moment was also captured on the latest NHL in ASL telecast.

MARCUS FOLIGNO JOINS BROTHER AS KING CLANCY TROPHY RECIPIENT

Wild forward Marcus Foligno is the 2025-26 recipient of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, presented “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.” Foligno was touring the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota with his wife Natascia and their three daughters when he was surprised with the trophy by Nick Foligno, his brother, teammate, and 2017 recipient of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. Alongside his family, Marcus helped establish the Janis Foligno Foundation, created in loving memory of his mother Janis who passed away after a courageous battle with breast cancer.

* This season, Marcus and his brother Nick participated in Foligno Face-Off, a fundraising campaign part of Hockey Fights Cancer powered by the V Foundation, with 100% of donations going toward life-saving breast cancer research. What began as a sibling rivalry when the brothers played on different teams, the Foligno Face-Off fundraising campaign evolved into a joint effort when Nick was traded to the Minnesota Wild, joining Marcus as a teammate for the first time in their NHL careers.

NHL SCOUTING COMBINE: MCKENNA SHARES TATTOO IN HONOR OF GRANDFATHER

With the 2026 NHL Scouting Combine presented by Fanatics underway in Buffalo, Gavin McKenna shared insight with NHL.com on one of his biggest influences and the person who motivates him: his grandfather, Joe Mason. McKenna has a tattoo that pays tribute to Joe – a cabin in the mountains in the Yukon Territory near McKenna’s home in Whitehorse, along with a moose and a wolf, honoring his Indigenous roots, which trace back through his grandfather. Mason is a survivor of the Canadian Indian residential school system and McKenna says his grandfather’s perspective helped him navigate pressures from this past season.