RALEIGH, N.C. — For weeks, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour fielded the same persistent questions about his top forwards Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho needing to contribute more offensively.
“We need them to get going,” Brind’Amour stated during the early stages of the Stanley Cup Final.
With at most two contests remaining to decide the championship, those key players may have finally delivered their breakthrough moment.
Svechnikov netted a pair of power-play goals while Aho recorded only his second goal since April, leading the Hurricanes to a 4-2 triumph over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday evening. The victory places Carolina just one win away from capturing the Stanley Cup.
“It is the biggest game. It was for me,” Svechnikov commented. “The mentality was great. I couldn’t sleep for the night (before).”
The series shifts to Las Vegas for Game 6 on Sunday night, where Carolina will have the opportunity to claim the Stanley Cup for the first time since Brind’Amour led the team as captain to the championship in 2006. The focus now centers on whether Svechnikov and Aho can maintain their newfound offensive momentum from Game 5.
Svechnikov recorded his first two-goal effort of the current playoffs and his fifth multi-goal postseason performance overall. The forward had been eager to make a greater offensive impact this spring, though his struggles hadn’t been as critical with the Logan Stankoven-led second line featuring Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall producing consistently throughout the playoffs.
Brind’Amour consistently maintained that both veteran players from the franchise’s current eight-year playoff streak were contributing adequately, predicting it was simply a matter of time before their scoring would increase. However, as the Hurricanes advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, pressure mounted on Aho as the organization’s top-paid player ($9.75 million this season) and Svechnikov as the third-highest earner ($7.75 million this season).
“Quite a decent (amount) of pressure, to be honest this playoffs,” Svechnikov acknowledged. “It’s just a new day was today.”
Both Aho and Svechnikov had managed just four goals apiece through 17 postseason contests before Thursday’s game. Five other teammates had surpassed their goal totals. Having them beat Carter Hart three times for scores felt like a long-awaited reward.
“That hasn’t really happened, and we’re still here,” Brind’Amour observed. “So it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way, but they have to have an impact in the game, whether it’s on the scoresheet or doing other things. It certainly makes it a lot smoother if they’re scoring. It takes a lot of pressure off other guys to do that, and I guess that’s what happened tonight.”
The contest remained deadlocked at 1-1 until second-period tallies from Svechnikov and Aho within a six-minute span. Svechnikov struck first, firing the puck past Hart during a power-play opportunity, followed by Aho finding the net for his first goal of the series and just his second score in the previous 14 contests.
“Getting on the score sheet, he knows he needs to do that,” Brind’Amour said regarding Aho. “He’s playing all the power plays, getting all that time to cash in. It doesn’t mean you’re not playing well. And he was doing, all playoffs, he’s done, I think, really well. But man, if we can get that out of him, that’s just a big bonus for our team.”
Svechnikov added his second goal to establish a 4-1 advantage, finishing at the right post following a crisp pass from Nikolaj Ehlers, who contributed three assists in the victory.
“We know it’s going to be hard,” Svechnikov said about finishing the series. “That’s the hardest trophy to win, and we just kind of got to play our game and keep the pressure on and hopefully we’re going to keep the momentum.”
