Carolina scored the game’s first goal, but Montreal responded with four first-period goals. Montreal leads the best-of-seven series 1-0.
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By Brian Murphy, WRAL News
RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes are no longer undefeated in the playoffs.
And after Montreal whipped them in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, the Hurricanes no longer have home-ice advantage, either.
Playing its first game since May 9, Carolina scored 33 seconds into the contest, seemingly putting to bed any concerns about rust. But Montreal answered just 27 seconds later, the first of four first-period goals, en route to the series-opening 6-2 victory.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday night in Raleigh.
Carolina entered the series 8-0 in the playoffs after consecutive sweeps of Ottawa and Philadelphia. But the Eastern Conference Final has been a nightmare for the franchise — even before Thursday night.
The Hurricanes are now 1-17 in five ECF appearances since 2009, including 1-13 since 2019 under coach Rod Brind’Amour and with much of the team’s current core. Carolina is 0-7 in Game 1s in the Eastern Conference Final, a mark that includes losses in 2002 and 2006 when the team recovered to win the series and reach the Stanley Cup Final.
It is just the fourth time in NHL history that a team has had at least 10 days off between series. All three of the teams with that much rest lost their next series.
Montreal defeated Buffalo in Game 7 of their series Monday night. The Canadiens have won two Game 7s in these playoffs.
It took just 33 seconds for Carolina to rekindle the feeling of the first two series. Jackson Blake nearly scored on a wraparound on the first shift of the game. After a Montreal icing led to an offensive-zone face-off, Jarvis quickly put the Hurricanes up 1-0.
But it didn’t last long. Montreal answered 27 seconds later on a goal by Cole Caufield. Caufield had 51 goals in the regular season and notched his fifth of the playoffs just one minute into the first period.
The Canadiens made it 2-1 on a breakaway goal by Phillip Danault, who beat Frederik Andersen with 15:56 remaining in the first period. Then Alexandre Texier added a third goal with 11:49 left in the period and Ivan Demidov tacked on another when he took a pass just inside the blue line and snapped a wrist shot past Andersen.
Unlike in previous series, where Carolina’s defense suffocated opponents, the Canadiens found plenty of open ice to skate throughout the game. And they did much of their damage with Carolina’s top defensive pairing on the ice. Jaccob Slavin finished minus-4 for the game and Jalen Chatfield was minus-3.
Jugar Slafkovsky finished with two goals, including an empty netter, and one assist. Caufield and Phillip Danault each had a goal and an assist. Nick Suzuki finished with three assists.
Carolina, which trailed 4-1 after the first period, played its best in the second period. Eric Robinson, off a long pass from William Carrier, made it 4-2 in the period with his first goal of these playoffs.
But in the third period Slafkovsky danced around Andrei Svechnikov and got a wrist shot past Carolina goaltender Frederik Anderson to extend the lead to 5-2.
Andersen had been the NHL’s top goalie in the postseason, but he allowed five goals on 22 shots against Montreal. Not all of them were his fault as the Canadiens poked holes in Carolina’s vaunted defense all night.
Several Carolina Hurricanes players have recently become dads, including K’Andre Miller and Sean Walker.
The Hurricanes host the Montreal Canadiens to open their best-of-seven series Thursday night, the third time in four seasons they’ve reached the league semifinals.
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