To dethrone Vegas, Carolina needs their stars to ignite, Frederik Andersen to maintain his playoff dominance, and disciplined special teams play to finally clinch a second title.
The Carolina Hurricanes are looking to capture their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, but they'll have to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights to get there.
Here are three keys for the Hurricanes to make it to the top:
1. The Top Guys Start Producing
Through three rounds, the Carolina Hurricanes' top scorers really haven't been too prolific.
To be fair, they haven't needed to step up with the way the entire group has been rolling, but it's notable how few goals they've actually scored.
Carolina's top line players (Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis) have combined for just two 5v5 goal and the top power play unit has only converted three times.
If the Hurricanes want to lift Lord Stanley by the end of this series, they're going to need those guys producing more than they have been.
"We'd love to have more production," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We haven't needed it, fortunately for us, but obviously with the amount of minutes they play and the situations they play, we're gonna need them to be on the scoresheet."
2. Frederik Andersen Stays Dialed
So far this postseason, Frederik Andersen has been one of the best goaltenders in the entire league.
He's posted a nearly perfect record of 12-1 and has a 0.931 save percentage and 1.41 goals against average.
In those 13 games, only once has he allowed more than two goals against and he's registered one shutout in every series so far as well.
Andersen has been lights out for Carolina and he's going to need to continue that dominance if he wants to be a Stanley Cup champion.
3. Stay Disciplined/Win Special Teams
With as good as both of these teams are defensively, the biggest difference may be how special teams plays out.
While Carolina has had a strong penalty kill, the power play has been lagging behind this postseason and that just can't continue to happen.
The Hurricanes need those top guys to start burying those chances, especially at this stage.
But if they're not, then they can't afford to be taking penalties.
Vegas has a very good power play with quite a few dynamic pieces. Again, the Hurricanes penalty kill has been good, but you just can't keep rolling the dice.
Staying out of the box will be huge must for the Hurricanes.
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