The Golden Knights' four-point plan for Game 5 suc...
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- Carolina Hurricanes won Game 4 on the road to steal back home-ice advantage and momentum, cutting the Vegas Golden Knights' Stanley Cup Final lead to 3-1.
- Jack Eichel has just two assists and is minus-3 through four Final games, and coach John Tortorella responded by moving Mark Stone up to Eichel's line in Game 4 after Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev played only 1:19 together.
- Vegas generated 12 rush shots in Game 4 by completing 22 stretch passes to Carolina's 9, with Mark Stone's first goal coming on a Shea Theodore stretch pass that beat three defenders.
- Carter Hart is 2-2 with an .861 save percentage and 3.60 goals-against average in the Final — a sharp drop from his .924/2.22 line across the prior 16 games, and his save percentages on scoring chances (.743), slot shots (.773), and inner slot shots (.750) are all sharply down from earlier rounds.
- The series is the fourth-highest-scoring after four games in NHL history with 33 total goals, putting goaltending on both sides under a microscope even as Tortorella has shielded Hart from the scrutiny Frederik Andersen absorbed.
- Carolina owns a 10-3 third-period scoring edge in the series, while Vegas has outscored the Hurricanes 9-1 in second periods — a period-by-period reversal that could decide Game 5.
Why it matters: Carolina's 10-3 third-period edge and Carter Hart's drop from .924 to .861 give Vegas exploitable weaknesses heading into Game 5. Vegas is 6-2 on the road this postseason and already won once in Raleigh — a win Thursday puts them one game from the Cup, while a loss returns the series to Carolina with all the momentum.
