{"id":491554,"date":"2026-06-04T23:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=491554"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:32:18","slug":"2026-stanley-cup-final-game2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/04\/2026-stanley-cup-final-game2\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Takeaways from 2026 Stanley Cup Final Game 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a must-win game for the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final. It looked the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> were going to stifle the home team once again<\/a>. However, Seth Jarvis<\/a> scored 3:56 into overtime and Jordan Staal<\/a> scored on the power play and helped cap a three-goal rally to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Frederik Andersen<\/a> made 23 saves for Carolina. However, the Hurricanes looked like they would up empty on the offensive end in this game before Logan Stankoven<\/a> got his 10th goal of the postseason with just under 10 minutes left in the third period. Mark Jankowski tied the game\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter Hart<\/a> made 22 saves and Brett Howden<\/a> scored twice for the Golden Knights versus the Hurricanes in Game 2 on Thursday night. Mark Stone<\/a> had a late goal in the third period to send the game to overtime. Game 3<\/a> will shift the series to the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. The puck drop is scheduled for just after 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

3 Takeaways from Game of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final<\/h2>\n

The Storm Rises<\/h3>\n

It looked like Vegas was going to take both games in the Lenovo Center after two and-a-half periods. However, Stankoven’s goal gave the team some life and Jankowski came up clutch to tie the score. Jarvis’ OT winner helped Carolina turn back the tide that was not going its way for most of the game.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes were gifted a power play after a failed challenge from Golden Knights coach John Tortorella. Teams like Carolina need to be put away when the opportunity to do so. However, Rod Brind’Amour<\/a>‘s club took advantage of a small sliver of hope and stole Game 2 away from the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

The win has turned the series into a best-of-five, and it was the first time that Carolina had beaten Vegas all season in three meetings counting the regular season and playoffs. Carolina has been getting plenty of help from its depth guys while top players like Sebastian Aho<\/a> and Andrei Svechnikov<\/a> try to figure things out.<\/p>\n

If the Hurricanes can wake those two players up, the series could get turned on its head. Carolina is more than capable of taking a game or two in Vegas.<\/p>\n

Brayden McNabb<\/a> Injured<\/h3>\n

The Golden Knights did get a scary moment when Brayden McNabb<\/a> left the game. The veteran defenceman left after taking a puck to the face in Vegas’ win in Game 2. McNabb put himself in front of a shot by Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ESPN reported that the veteran blueliner left the building and went to the hospital to get checked out. Replays showed McNabb getting hit flush in the face by the shot.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

(Credit Image: \u00a9 Brent Clark\/Cal Sport Media)<\/em><\/p>\n

McNabb has seven points from the blueliner so far in the postseason. The Golden Knights have built one of the best defensive groups in the league and the 35-year-old is a part of that group. Vegas was able to get by without him in Game 2. However, the team is hoping he can be back when the series moves to Sin City this weekend.<\/p>\n

Howden’s Conn Smythe Case<\/h3>\n

Early projections had after Game 1 had Mitch Marner<\/a> as the clubhouse leader for the Conn Smythe Trophy. However, Howden is staking his claim to the postseason MVP award with his goal-scoring surge.<\/p>\n

Howden only registered 12 goals in the regular season for the Golden Knights in 58 games. However, the Calgary native has been one of the team’s best players since Tortorella took over from Bruce Cassidy<\/a> behind the bench.<\/p>\n

He’s been able to put himself in good position to score goals and his offence supplements the rest of the forward group. Most of the plaudits go to Jack Eichel<\/a>, Pavel\u00a0Dorofeyev and Marner. However, Howden’s scoring has staked his claim in the lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n

Depth scoring often carries teams to Stanley Cups and Howden’s contribution in textbook in that department. The playoffs often make for unlikely heroes, and Howden could be the latest one to come out of nowhere to guide his team to glory.<\/p>\n

Main photo by: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a must-win game for the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final. It looked the Vegas Golden Knights were going to stifle the home team once again. However, Seth Jarvis scored 3:56 into overtime and Jordan Staal scored on the power play and helped cap a three-goal rally to give the Hurricanes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":491556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4547,34,4548],"tags":[8285,7297,663,2286,5850],"class_list":["post-491554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hurricanes","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-carolina-hurricanes-analysis","tag-john-tortorella","tag-rod-brindamour","tag-vegas-golden-knights-analysis"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491558,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491554\/revisions\/491558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}