RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Hurricanes have done it. They beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final to win their first Stanley Cup championship since 2006.
Just seven seconds after the Hurricanes successfully defended against a Vegas power play, Brett Howden found the back of the net for his second goal of the night, giving the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead in the second period.
The goal sent a chill through the Lenovo Center crowd and put the Hurricanes in a dangerous hole, already trailing the series 1-0.
The Hurricanes trail the Golden Knights 1-0 after the first period of Game 2.
Brett Howden scored the game's only goal so far.
Shortly after Vegas took the lead, the Canes had a power play but failed to capitalize. Moments after, a Jordan Staal holding penalty gave the Golden Knights a power play, but the Canes successfully killed the chance.
Carolina outshot Vegas 7-2 in the period, but the Knights made it count.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson said Thursday that he is demanding answers from Ticketmaster about presale queues, technology issues, and how it monitors and responds to bots and other bad actors that try to disrupt the sales process for Stanley Cup Final tickets.
Many Hurricanes season ticket holders who had presale codes so they could buy seats before anyone else said they couldn't get tickets because of issues with Ticketmaster's queue, Jackson said.
"Season ticket holders did everything right. They had the codes, they showed up on time, and the system left them in line for hours and without tickets," Jackson said. "Ticketmaster's got one week to respond to our questions."
According to complaints to the AG's office and news reports, fans tried to log in on time, but, after "technical errors," got pushed to the back of the line. Many waited hours, reached the front, and found the primary tickets already gone, Jackson said.
That left those season-ticket holders with only one option -- the resale market, where some of those tickets were listed for thousands of dollars.
Jackson sent Ticketmaster a letter on Thursday, demanding that the company explain:
"Ticketmaster controls a huge part of how tickets get sold," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "If it wants to collect the fees, it can answer the questions."
Hurricanes fans who had problems buying Stanley Cup Final tickets can file a complaint at www.ncdoj.gov/complaint.
The Carolina Hurricanes need to get better production from their top line to overcome a formidable Stanley Cup Final foe in the Vegas Golden Knights.
Players and coaches know adjustments must be made, but they expressed confidence that what went wrong in Game 1 is fixable.
