NHL · Championship Series · 2026 · Final result
2026 Stanley Cup Final
Series complete: Carolina Hurricanes win the Cup, 4-2 over the Vegas Golden Knights.
The 2026 Stanley Cup Final is over. The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 to win the Stanley Cup, their first since 2006 and the second in franchise history. They closed it out with a 3-0 Game 6 shutout in Vegas on 14 June; Jordan Staal took the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP.
tail.bet tracked every captured whale bet on the series. Below is the money that rode the Hurricanes to the Cup, and the Vegas bets the Game 6 shutout burned.
Champions · Eastern Conference
Carolina Hurricanes
Won the series 4-2. First Stanley Cup since 2006.
Runners-up · Western Conference
Vegas Golden Knights
Shut out 3-0 at home in Game 6.
Games — best-of-seven
Series tracker →Game
1
2026-06-03
Higher-seeded team's home arena
Game
2
2026-06-05
Higher-seeded team's home arena
Game
3
2026-06-08
Lower-seeded team's home arena
Game
4
2026-06-10
Lower-seeded team's home arena
Game
5
2026-06-13
Higher-seeded team's home arena · if necessary
Game
6
2026-06-16
Lower-seeded team's home arena · if necessary
Game
7
2026-06-20
Higher-seeded team's home arena · if necessary
Explore the series
Series tracker
Live series score (1-0, 2-1, 3-3 etc) across all seven possible games.
Whale Tracker
Biggest captured bets on the 2026 NHL Championship.
Eastern champion
Roster, headline players, captured bets — updates when set.
Western champion
Roster, headline players, captured bets — updates when set.
Game 1
Opener — every series-level bet lands here first.
All hockey bets
League-agnostic feed of every hockey bet we've tracked.
How the Stanley Cup Final works
Best-of-seven championship series. The Eastern Conference champion meets the Western Conference champion. Higher-seeded team holds home-ice advantage (Games 1, 2, 5, 7).
The 2-2-1-1-1 schedule format means the higher seed hosts Games 1, 2, 5, and 7; the lower seed hosts Games 3, 4, and 6. If a Game 5 is needed, it returns to the higher seed's arena. Games 6 and 7 (if needed) alternate again. The winning team lifts the Stanley Cup — the oldest trophy in professional North American sport, first awarded in 1893. The playoff MVP wins the Conn Smythe Trophy.
A short history of the Cup
The Stanley Cup has been a best-of-seven series since 1939. Most titles: Montreal Canadiens with 24. Most Conn Smythe Trophies: Patrick Roy with 3. Recent champions include the Florida Panthers (2024, 2025), Vegas Golden Knights (2023), Colorado Avalanche (2022), and Tampa Bay Lightning (2021, 2020).