The Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions

In Las Vegas, the team secured the decisive fourth victory in the best-of-seven series with a 3-0 win over the Golden Knights in Game 6. The Hurricanes won their first championship in 2006. Current coach Rod Brind’Amour was the team’s captain back then.

The Hurricanes finished the regular season as the top team in the Eastern Conference and, after failed attempts in recent years, advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. There, the team lived up to its role as favorite.

Missed opportunity for Akira Schmid

For the Golden Knights, who are only in their ninth NHL season, all their dreams were dashed for the second time in their third Stanley Cup Final. Their only title remains the one from the 2022–23 season. Thus, away from the spotlight, Emmental-born goalie Akira Schmid missed the chance to become the fourth Swiss player—after David Aebischer, Martin Gerber, and Mark Streit—to win the Stanley Cup.

Although Schmid was no longer on the roster during the playoffs, he would have met the criteria for a Stanley Cup winner nonetheless. A player or goalie must have been listed on the game sheet for at least half of the regular-season games—that is, 41 games. The Swiss player easily meets this criterion: Schmid was listed on the game sheet for 75 games, played in 34 of them, won 16, and posted a save percentage of 89.3 percent.

Carolina strikes early

Taylor Hall scored the 1-0 goal for the visitors just four minutes into the game on Sunday night. Jackson Blake made it 2-0 in the second period. After that, the Hurricanes had the game under control—partly because Vegas couldn’t capitalize on its own chances. With 68 seconds left, Biel-native Nikolaj Ehlers scored to make it 3-0 as the Golden Knights pulled their goalie in a bid to force a comeback.