RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The on-ice celebration was underway for the Carolina Hurricanes after securing their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in two decades. Rod Brind'Amour hugged and congratulated his players, all while reminding them there was another series ahead.
Then came veteran forward Jordan Martinook.
“All right, Marty, you got us here,” Brind'Amour told him.
“One more,” Martinook replied, on cue. “Yep, one more.”
It took eight seasons under Brind'Amour — the captain on Carolina's Cup winner in 2006 — to punch through an Eastern Conference Final roadblock by closing out the Montreal Canadiens in five games Friday night. So this moment was one to savor particularly for five players — Martinook, captain Jordan Staal, forwards Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, and defenseman Jaccob Slavin — who have been here through the pain of three previous exits in this round going back to 2019 in Brind'Amour's debut as head coach.
“It's hard to really describe,” Staal said as he sat at his locker. "It's been a lot of grinding, a lot of ups and downs. ... I'm just so happy to be where we're at and just excited for the opportunity ahead.”
Carolina's rise began with Brind'Amour being elevated to head coach in 2018 after seven seasons as an assistant. At the time, the Hurricanes were mired in a nine-year playoff drought.
They haven't missed the postseason since. And the quintet has been there throughout that Brind'Amour-led climb:
— The Hurricanes acquired Staal from Pittsburgh during the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He won the Cup with the Penguins in 2009 — which included a sweep of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final when Brind'Amour was still a player — but had toiled through six of Carolina's postseason-less seasons.
— Slavin was a 2012 fourth-round pick who had played three seasons with Carolina before becoming one of the NHL's best defense-first blue liners.
— Aho was a 2015 second-round pick and had played two seasons with Carolina on his way to developing into the Hurricanes' top-line center.
— The Hurricanes acquired Martinook from Arizona days after Brind’Amour took over, adding a player who would join Staal on a strong checking line.
— And the Hurricanes drafted Svechnikov with the No. 2 overall pick a month after Brind'Amour's promotion, with Svechnikov now a physical fixture on Aho's wing.
Results were immediate. Carolina took out the reigning Cup champion Washington Capitals in a seven-game first-round series, then went on to make an unexpected trip to the Eastern Conference Final before being swept by Boston.
It was a start, both of sustained success and recurring frustration.
The Hurricanes returned to the Eastern Conference Final again in 2023, this time with home-ice advantage against the Florida Panthers. But they were swept again by four one-goal margins, including a four-overtime epic in Game 1.
Then last year, the Hurricanes returned for a rematch that quickly went awry. They lost Games 1 and 2 in a performance that frustrated a normally rowdy and exuberant home crowd, fell into an 0-3 series hole and exited in five games.
That dropped Carolina to 1-12 in that round under Brind'Amour, unable to turn years of consistent regular-season success into a breakthrough playoff moment. It's all part of “scar tissue” Martinook mentioned Friday night, shared by the quintet with Brind'Amour as well as holdovers like assistant coach Jeff Daniels and longtime video coach Chris Huffine.
“They’ve really grinded out and did it the right way,” Brind'Amour said, "and took a lot of, I think, flack for getting this far and not getting past it. Unduly. I don't think that was right, because they played as hard as they could. ... They gave it everything they had, and that’s all you can ask.
“We got better this year, we added some pieces that made us better to get us to this point. But as a coach, you watch these guys every day, there's nobody luckier than me to have these guys, the way they approach their business on a daily basis, not just now.”
That was never more on display than against Montreal.
The Hurricanes swept Ottawa and Philadelphia in the first two rounds, securing an 11-day between-rounds break — the longest in the playoffs in more than a century. They emerged with a horrid start against the Canadiens, who pounced for four first-period goals in a 6-2 win that harkened back to past conference-final troubles.
Instead of stumbling, the playoff-tested Hurricanes ascended.
Nikolaj Ehlers gave them a 3-2 overtime win in Game 2. They won Game 3 by the same OT score on Svechnikov's road winner, with Aho screening Jakub Dobes at the top of the crease. And they got to their smothering game Staal likened to a “machine” from there, winning 4-0 on the road before Friday's 6-1 home win.
That made Carolina the first team to reach the Stanley Cup Final with only one loss since 1983, according to SportRadar, and first to do so since the league went to best-of-seven series in all four postseason rounds in 1987.
Now comes a date with Vegas for the Cup, a rare new experience for Carolina's holdovers in this long run.
“I feel like it was more maybe you guys talking about, 'Oh, this is the Eastern Conference Final, can't go past it,'” Aho told reporters in the locker room afterward. “I thought the room was definitely very confident in what we can do. But yeah, it feels good to play for the Cup now.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour, top right, looks at a replay during the first period in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho (20) and Seth Jarvis, right, watch a replay of Jarvis' empty-net goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
Carolina Hurricanes' Jordan Staal (11) skates to accept the Prince of Wales Trophy following Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
The title match in soccer’s biggest club competition is underway: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Arsenal in the Champions League final in Budapest, Hungary.
PSG is looking to win Europe’s elite competition for a second straight year while Arsenal is bidding to become European champion for the first time on its return to the final after a 20-year wait.
Both teams are coming off winning their own domestic leagues, in France and England, respectively.
Here's the latest:
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has reacted to conceding the goal by making two changes: one of them being striker Viktor Gyökeres coming on for Martin Odegaard in a switch that will see Kai Havertz drop into midfield.
Also, Jurrien Timber replaces Cristhian Mosquera as right back.
Ousmane Dembélé holds his nerve and converts his penalty kick into the bottom left corner.
PSG fans are setting off flares to celebrate.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been fouled by Cristhian Mosquera in the area and the referee points to the penalty spot.
PSG is pushing forward and Arsenal is trying to slow things down. Arsenal defender Cristhian Mosquera is dragging his feet a bit too much at a throw-in and receives a yellow card for time wasting.
They do have potentially game-changing options on the bench, notably in France forward Bradley Barcola and Portugal striker Goncalo Ramos.
Ousmane Dembélé has been quiet – is he fully fit? – and has been snuffed out by Arsenal’s big center backs.
There’s also Senny Mayulu, a 20-year-old attacker who scored as a substitute for PSG in last year’s 5-0 win over Inter Milan in the final.
Arsenal has done a very good job of keeping PSG’s wide players quiet. Désiré Doué, the star of last year’s final, has been ineffective. So has Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
PSG is having lots of possession, but keeps coming up against a red wall with so little space around the box.
PSG’s players also look unusually nervous on the ball. Perhaps a little too afraid to get caught on the break again after falling behind early in the first half.
An early goal, then defend the lead.
This final is going just how Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta might have dreamed.
There was an element of fortune about Kai Havertz’s goal. But Arsenal fans won’t care about that.
PSG has had one shot on goal – a speculative long-range effort in the final minute of the half.
The defending champions need to improve drastically.
We’re past the half-hour point in the final, and PSG still hasn’t had a shot on target.
The French champions have, though, had more than 70% possession. But it’s not getting them anywhere.
The coaches of the two finalists – PSG’s Luis Enrique and Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta – are both Spanish. And they go way back.
They were together at Barcelona in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Arteta was starting his professional career and Luis Enrique was coming toward the end of his.
Arteta has said he “learnt a lot of things” from Luis Enrique as a player and now as a coach, saying he has “this unbelievable power” and an approach to life that he really likes.
Arteta had a spell on loan at PSG in 2000-01, when he played alongside Ronaldinho and Nicolas Anelka.
PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov needs attention from team medics after receiving a blow to the head.
Backup keeper Lucas Chevalier is warming up but Safonov remains on the field for now. Chevalier lost his starting spot in favor of Safonov earlier this season and, due to his limited playing time, was not selected for the French national team for the World Cup.
The teams are taking a break for drinks at the midway point of the first half.
Things are going just as Arsenal would like, still leading 1-0.
The Germany forward becomes only the third player – after Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United and Real Madrid) and Mario Mandzukic (Juventus and Bayern Munich) — to score in a Champions League final for two different teams, according to stats supplier Opta.
Arsenal is sitting deep and PSG has all the possession.
Expect that to be the case while Arsenal leads.
There’s even a bit of time-wasting from Arsenal on goal kicks -- to the annoyance of PSG fans.
Kai Havertz makes it 1-0 for the Gunners in the sixth minute.
Marquinhos’ attempted clearance rebounds off Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard and into the path of Havertz, who strides through on goal from near halfway. His shot from a narrow angle goes into the roof of the net.
The players emerge from their huddles and the Champions League is underway with Arsenal taking the kickoff.
An English fan was taken to hospital Saturday afternoon after suffering what police called a “life-threatening” injury in an electric scooter accident, but wasn’t willing to let the injury keep him from the final.
Budapest police said the man “left the hospital without permission because he was adamant about going to the match.”
They added that they are looking for the man and trying to contact his family “because he requires immediate medical attention.”
Only Real Madrid has successfully defended the Champions League title since the competition was rebranded in 1992.
Can PSG be the second team to do so?
The Madrid team of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale won the Champions League three times in a row (2016-18), under coach Zinedine Zidane.
Since then, no defending champion has reached the final until this PSG team, which beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich last year.
PSG and Arsenal have reached the title match adopting vastly different playing approaches.
PSG is the top-scoring team in the competition with 44 goals -- that’s an average of more than three per game.
Arsenal has the Champions League’s best defense, letting in just six goals in 14 games and keeping nine clean sheets, three more than any other team has registered.
▶ Read more
The man entrusted with being the referee for the biggest match in club soccer won’t even be going to next month's World Cup.
German ref Daniel Siebert was left off FIFA’s list of match officials for the World Cup – after going to the 2022 edition in Qatar – so handling the Champions League final is a consolation prize in a sense.
This will be the third straight round Siebert will have worked an Arsenal match.
Video review – or VAR, as it’s known in soccer circles — will be in operation for the final.
PSG: Matvey Safonov; Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Vitinha, João Neves, Fabian Ruiz; Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué.
Arsenal: David Raya; Cristhian Mosquera, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Piero Hincapié; Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Odegaard; Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka.
Zohran Mamdani is a big Arsenal fan and the New York Mayor was seen wearing club-branded clothing when he joined residents across the city for Eid al-Adha prayers this week.
In an article he has written for The Athletic ahead of the final, Mamdani said he started supporting Arsenal from the age of 9 after his uncle “introduced me to a team with a cannon on its shirt.”
He says supporting the team “increasingly became an exercise in nostalgia” until the recent uplift under Mikel Arteta.
“Over these past two years, no matter how chaotic life became, Arsenal remained the constant,” he writes.
Mamdani acknowledges PSG is “brilliant” and “frustratingly well-managed” by Luis Enrique, but has a message for Arsenal and its fans: “Enjoy this moment, because they don’t come around often.”
Fans are making their way to the stadium under a cloudy, threatening sky in Budapest, and they’ll have a role to play in the final.
Not least with the rival chants that you might get to hear in your TV broadcast.
PSG’s most notable song will see their passionate Ultras bellow “Tous ensemble on chantera” (All together we will sing).
Arsenal fans have their own chant that has grown in popularity over the last few seasons in manager Arteta’s 6 ½-year reign, with a chorus taken from “The Angel (North London Forever)” -- written by singer and Arsenal fan Louis Dunford in 2022.
▶ Read more
This is the first European Cup final to be staged in Hungary and it comes at an interesting time for the Central European country, a few weeks after right-wing populist leader Viktor Orbán‘s heavy defeat in the elections.
Péter Magyar is the prime minister and is set to attend the match at the 67,000-seat Puskas Arena, a stadium that opened in 2019 and was built on the same site as the previous Ferenc Puskas Stadion — named after the Hungarian and Real Madrid great who won three European Cups as a player.
Orbán is a massive soccer fan and attempted to bring back the glory days of the 1950s, when Hungary had one of the world’s top teams.
To that end, the arena, located a few kilometers east of central Budapest, has become a well-known host for European games. The stadium staged the UEFA Super Cup in 2020, as well as a slew of Champions League group games and four European Championship matches in 2021. In 2023, it hosted the Europa League final won by Sevilla.
Pre-match entertainment is being provided by American rock band The Killers, who are best known for songs like “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Somebody Told Me.”
It differs from the Super Bowl, where artists perform in a halftime show.
The Killers, who hail from Las Vegas, predicted an “epic match” when they were announced to be performing – though at the time, they didn’t know who the finalists would be.
In previous years, Linkin Park, Lenny Kravitz and Dua Lipa have been headliners in Champions League finals.
Some 48,000 fans are expected to fill PSG’s stadium in Paris, the Parc des Princes, to watch the match on giant screens.
PSG said Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire is among the officials expected to attend.
Former players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Claude Makélélé and Ronaldinho, have been invited to Budapest for the final.
It’s the first time in 55 years that clubs from two different capital cities are competing in the final of Europe’s biggest club competition.
The last was Ajax (of Amsterdam) vs. Panathinaikos (of Athens) in 1971.
There were only two before that: Benfica (Lisbon) vs. Real Madrid in 1962 and Real Madrid vs. Partizan Belgrade in 1966.
This is also the first major European final featuring teams from France and England.
It’s the last match of the European club season – and World Cup coaches will be watching on with a mixture of intrigue and nervousness.
The World Cup begins in 12 days, and the squads of both PSG and Arsenal are bulging with players heading to the tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Any injuries sustained in the final could be devastating so close to the big kickoff.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says winning the Premier League has whetted the players’ appetite for more trophies.
Nothing comes bigger than the Champions League.
“The ambition is bigger,” Arteta said in his pre-match news conference. “We have one, and we want the second one ... there has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations.”
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the first player in the squad to get his hands on the Premier League trophy, and he liked it.
“When you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy,” Odegaard says, “you know how nice it feels. And we want to do it again.”
Many of soccer’s superstar players will be taking the field at Puskas Arena – not least PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé, the most recent world player of the year.
Désiré Doué, the 20-year-old forward who lit up last year’s final with two goals in the record 5-0 win over Inter Milan, is still a shining light for PSG along with Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and three of Cristiano Ronaldo’s top teammates with Portugal – Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves.
Arsenal has England stars Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice in midfield and the striker who has just sent Sweden to the World Cup – Viktor Gyökeres.
Groups of fans got physical late Friday in Budapest’s frequented party area, leading police to launch an investigation over disorderly conduct.
Videos on social media showed several dozen people throwing punches and kicks, driving another group down Király street in the capital’s District 7.
One fan held a burning red flare before throwing it toward the other group, which was retreating down the street. Budapest police said in a statement that the violence erupted shortly after midnight, and that it was using surveillance footage to try to identify participants.
__ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Arsenal's Leandro Trossard falls to the ground in a clash with PSG's Desire Doue during the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr Josek)
Arsenal's Kai Havertz celebrates after scoring during the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
Arsenal fans cheers before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
Arsenal's Kai Havertz celebrates after scoring during the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
PSG fans hold up their scarves before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
The trophy is displayed on the pitch before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr Josek)
Generel view of the Puskas Arena a day ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
PSG supporters react as they make their way to the stadium ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)
PSG supporters are accompanied by security ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)
