luckadjusted
NHL Week 1 · 2026-27

Stanley Cup Final 2025-26 · June 5, 2026 · OT

No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

Golden Knights at Hurricanes, Game 2, Stanley Cup Final 2025-26: who deserved to win?

The Hurricanes beat the Golden Knights 4–3, but the replays call it close to a coin flip: with the way both teams played, the Hurricanes win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: overtime alone was worth 50 points of win probability to the Hurricanes.

The biggest swing (OT): the Hurricanes won in overtime, worth 50 points of win probability to the Hurricanes.

Final (OT)

Vegas Golden Knights 3
Carolina Hurricanes 4

June 5, 2026 · Lenovo Center

Luck index +47 Hurricanes lucky · −47 Golden Knights

Each team’s own shots from this game, resampled into new games 4,000 times, each a goal at its chance, with the power plays the penalties gave and the pulled goalie at the end: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Golden Knights win 5, Hurricanes win 5.

  1. 1 VGK 3 CAR 0
  2. 2 VGK 5 CAR 2
  3. 3 VGK 3 CAR 1
  4. 4 VGK 4 CAR 3
  5. 5 VGK 3 CAR 2
  6. 6 VGK 0 CAR 1
  7. 7 VGK 2 CAR 3
  8. 8 VGK 1 CAR 3
  9. 9 VGK 3 CAR 6
  10. 10 VGK 1 CAR 5

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

No closing line for this game.

Needs the closing line, which this game has not got.

Every shot redrawn at its chance, overtime and the shootout replayed as near coin flips; the shots themselves and every call fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 4,000.1 replays ended

Golden Knights win 47% of them, Hurricanes 53%. The line is what actually happened: Hurricanes by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Golden Knights by 3+15.5%
Golden Knights by 29.2%
Golden Knights by 122.6%
Hurricanes by 123.0%
Hurricanes by 210.1%
Hurricanes by 3+19.6%

Where the luck was

What the luck was worth

Every lucky and unlucky play, weighted by the moment it happened: its swing in win probability, added up by kind. A post hit in a blowout counts for nothing; the same post with a minute left in a tie game can be most of a win.

Swings add up across a game, so in one that went back and forth they can pass 100%. On the scoreboard the same luck was worth +0.9 goals to the Hurricanes: the final margin was Hurricanes by 1, without the luck even. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each kind is luck).
ShootingUnblocked attemptsGoalsExpected goalsAbove expected
Golden Knights3132.61+0.39
Hurricanes4432.67+0.33

Regulation with both goalies in. Expected goals: our model of each shot’s chance from where and how it was taken (distance, angle, shot type, rebound, rush, strength), adjusted for the shooter’s and the goalie’s records. A team above expected finished better or met a weaker night in goal; 75% of the gap counts as luck (why that share).

Calls

Every penalty that put a team on the power play, and every goal taken off the board on review, with what it did to the helped team’s chance of winning at that moment. Calls don’t count toward luck by default: who draws penalties repeats from game to game like a skill (how calls are valued). Switch them on below.

WhenCallWin probability for
P1 17:31 Tripping on the Golden Knights (Dylan Coghlan): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CAR
P1 5:16 Roughing on the Golden Knights (Colton Sissons): 2 minutes on the power play +4% CAR
P1 2:18 Holding on the Hurricanes (Jordan Staal): 2 minutes on the power play +4% VGK
P2 14:44 Interference on the Hurricanes (K'Andre Miller): 2 minutes on the power play +4% VGK
P2 6:05 Slashing on the Hurricanes (Jordan Martinook): 2 minutes on the power play +3% VGK
P3 5:00 A Golden Knights goal came off the board on review (goal interference) +38% CAR
P3 5:00 Delaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Golden Knights (VGK): 2 minutes on the power play +9% CAR
P3 3:29 Interference on the Hurricanes (Jackson Blake): 2 minutes on the power play +6% VGK
OT 16:43 Tripping on the Golden Knights (Tomas Hertl): 2 minutes on the power play +12% CAR

When it happened

Hurricanes’ chance of winning

As low as 5% and as high as 100%. Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

Our in-game win probability: the score and the time left, starting from the betting line (or the home edge alone when there is none), with goals at the league’s rates for the score. Overtime is drawn at a fixed width. Shaded above the middle while the Hurricanes were ahead in it, below while the Golden Knights were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 P1 6:27 Brett Howden scored on a snap shot from 23 feetShooting · 18% chance +15% VGK –
2 P2 12:37 Brett Howden scored on a wrist shot from 5 feetShooting · 18% chance +13% VGK –
3 P3 9:40 Logan Stankoven scored on a backhand shot from 6 feetShooting · 6% chance +13% CAR –
4 P3 7:14 Mark Jankowski scored on a snap shot from 30 feetShooting · 11% chance +32% CAR –
5 P3 5:00 A Golden Knights goal came off the board on review (goal interference)Overturned goalsDelaying game unsuccessful challenge on the Golden Knights (VGK): 2 minutes on the power playPenalty calls +47% CAR –
6 P3 4:35 Jordan Staal scored on a tip from 12 feetShooting · 10% chance +35% CAR –
7 P3 1:21 Mark Stone scored on a backhand shot from 4 feetShooting · 24% chance +33% VGK –
8 OT The Hurricanes won in overtimeOvertime · overtime is close to a coin flip +50% CAR –

Adjust the assumptions

Think finishing is more skill than we do, or that the calls were luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Golden Knights 48% · Hurricanes 52%

Final margin
Hurricanes by 1
Luck in goals
1.0 for the Hurricanes
Luck-adjusted margin
even
Replay with same day's form
Golden Knights 47% · Hurricanes 53% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts
Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a goal becomes a save, a post goes in, a penalty goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play from the NHL via fastRhockey; expected goals, in-game win probability and the replays are our own models, fitted on every game since 2018-19 (methodology and validation). Blocked shots aren’t replayed (their location is the block’s, not the shot’s). No betting line for this game, so there is no before-puck-drop or fresh-game number.

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