06/02/26 10:10:00
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06/02 22:08 CDT Vegas and Carolina put on a show to get the Stanley Cup Final
off to a terrific start
Vegas and Carolina put on a show to get the Stanley Cup Final off to a terrific
start
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- One sweep and one lopsided five-game series in the third
round sucked some of the air out of the NHL playoffs.
Vegas and Carolina brought it all back with a terrific start to the Stanley Cup
Final.
The Golden Knights' 5-4 victory on Tuesday night had a little bit of
everything, from Nikolaj Ehlers scoring 25 seconds in for the Hurricanes and
lifting an already riled-up crowd to its feet to each goaltender making big
saves to keep the puck out of the net. The only thing missing was the lockdown
defense that got these teams to this point, but that only made for a more
entertaining opener.
Sure, maybe it was a bit of a coach's nightmare with all the odd-man rushes and
even some breakaways as the grade-A chances piled up. Ehlers scored twice on
those, and Logan Stankoven got in all alone before getting denied by Carter
Hart.
Vegas rallied from another multi-goal deficit after falling behind by two just
over 12 minutes in. When Ivan Barbashev scored 30 seconds into the second, he
made this the first Cup final game in history with goals that quickly in each
of the first two periods.
Jordan Staal scoring his first goal at this stage of the playoffs since 2009
and breaking older brother Eric's record for the longest gap between Cup final
goals brought the crowd back to life. So did Shayne Gostisbehere tying it with
under nine minutes left in regulation.
Hart made his biggest stop of the night with 3:43 left, flashing his glove to
rob Seth Jarvis, Carolina's top-line right wing whose snakebit struggle of a
run continued.
But the Golden Knights had one more highlight-clip moment in a game full of
them. Colton Sissons' backhand pass set up Tomas Hertl --- who also had a rough
go the first couple of rounds --- for the go-ahead goal, just 19 seconds after
Hart stopped Jarvis.
After a ton of excitement between two hockey powerhouses, viewers can only hope
for six more games just like this one.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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