{"id":731644,"date":"2026-06-12T10:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731644\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:28:08","slug":"bussi-living-dream-with-unbelievable-play-for-hurricanes-in-stanley-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731644\/","title":{"rendered":"Bussi living dream with \u2018unbelievable\u2019 play for Hurricanes in Stanley Cup Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

After not having played for two months \u2013 from April 14 to June 6 \u2013\u00a0Bussi has stepped in in relief of Frederik Andersen<\/a>, becoming the first goalie in NHL history to make his first two career playoff starts in the Stanley Cup Final \u2013 and win both.<\/p>\n

As the game went on, as the win got closer, the cheers went up again and again, on save after save, including two consecutive stops on Tomas Hertl<\/a> with 1:24 and 1:22 remaining in the third. And though he\u2019d allow two goals in the game, both to Pavel Dorofeyev<\/a>\u00a0(6:52 of the first, 13:49 of the third), Bussi would hold on, his calmness and confidence radiating out to the rest of the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes will get a chance to close it out, almost certainly with\u00a0Bussi in net, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).<\/p>\n

Asked if he has thought about being in that position, about being so close to the Cup,\u00a0Bussi said, \u201cNo. This series we\u2019ve been trailing a lot and honestly, I think we need to keep that mindset. Like, we need to be hungry. We\u2019re going there for Game 6 and we\u2019re probably going to see the best version of them, and we\u2019re going to probably see the best version of them for whatever happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that only means that we need to continue to step it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He already has. It was\u00a0Bussi who made the most starts this season for the Hurricanes with 39, going 31-6-2 with a 2.47 goals-against average and an .895 save percentage in the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an unbelievable season, there\u2019s no question,\u201d captain Jordan Staal<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t really come out of nowhere. He was kind of a diamond in the rough, and Freddie played so great. Unfortunate the way it unfolded for him. But we have so much faith in Bussi and what he can do. He played great these last two games, and we\u2019re going to need him to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The signs of their love and support were everywhere, from the \u201cBus-Si\u201d\u00a0t-shirts to the yellow inflatable suit that had been altered to read \u201cBUS\u201d in what appeared to be black tape. There were the chants and cheers, the towel waving after saves, the belief in a player who might just save the series and the Stanley Cup for the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Because while Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart<\/a>\u00a0allowed four goals for the fifth straight game in this series, Bussi became the first starting goalie to allow fewer than three goals in a game, giving up two on 25 shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun,\u201d\u00a0Bussi said. \u201cI think that\u2019s just about it. You work hard, you enjoy the moment, and you put your head down and grind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After not having played for two months \u2013 from April 14 to June 6 \u2013\u00a0Bussi has stepped in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-731644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}