After swirling in a 20-year-long hurricane, waiting at the eye of the storm for Carolina was another Stanley Cup.

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6, capturing the franchise’s second Stanley Cup ever and their first since 2006. The win also caps off one of the best playoff runs in league history, with the Canes going 16-3 en route to the Cup after an 113-point regular season.

The Hurricanes returned to Vegas after a total turnaround of the series, winning Game 4 and 5 in convincing fashion off the heels of a devastating double OT loss in Game 3. A lot of that turnaround can be credited to the rise of goaltender Brandon Bussi, who entered in relief of Freddie Andersen in the third period of Game 3 and never looked back. He saved his best work for last, turning in a dazzling 22-save shutout performance on the road.

Taylor Hall opened the scoring just three minutes into the first period with a shot off the rush that beat Carter Hart clean for his seventh goal of the playoffs. In the second period, Hall’s linemate Jackson Blake doubled the lead off a one-timer feed from Logan Stankoven, his seventh of the postseason as well. The Knights pressed for two goals in the third period, but Bussi stood tall until the final buzzer. Nik Ehlers salted the game away with an empty net goal, and Jordan Staal captured the Conn Smythe Trophy with 12 points, including goals in five straight games of the Final.

For the Hurricanes, this was the culmination of almost a decade of work, starting after Tom Dundon bought the team in 2018. Through the formative work of Don Waddell in the early years, a championship roster rounded into form thanks to the analytics-based work of his successor Eric Tulsky. The Canes have had a formidable game plan put together by head coach and former captain Rod Brind’Amour, who was the first Hurricane to lift the Cup two decades ago. A near-perfect storybook ending. And Canucks fans got to witness former Canuck Jalen Chatfield hoist his first championship as the icing on the cake.

As for the Golden Knights, karma comes for us in many forms. In this case, it was the Knights putting all their eggs into the Carter Hart basket, only for him to turn in the single-worst Stanley Cup goaltending performance in NHL history. When the chips are down, the puck doesn’t lie.

The Knights will have questions to answer in the offseason, including what to do with the head coaching position after John Tortorella’s contract expires, and how to handle their ever-confusing salary cap structure. But whether people like it or not, odds are this team will resurface like locusts at a Cup Final again sometime down the road.