06/02/26 08:28:00
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06/02 20:26 CDT Ehlers scores twice in 1st as Hurricanes get fast start against
Golden Knights in Stanley Cup Final
Ehlers scores twice in 1st as Hurricanes get fast start against Golden Knights
in Stanley Cup Final
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- The Carolina Hurricanes got off to a fast start in their
first Stanley Cup Final game in 20 years, though the Vegas Golden Knights
regrouped to level the score.
Nikolaj Ehlers got loose on a rush on the left side and blasted a puck past
Carter Hart on the game's first shot, just 25 seconds in. He followed by
getting loose on a breakaway off a feed from Jalen Chatfield and beating Hart
again at the 12:08 mark to make it 2-0. But Vegas' Shea Theodore got one back
by firing the puck through traffic to beat Frederik Andersen at 13:28 of the
first, then Ivan Barbashev beat Andersen from the slot 30 seconds into the
second period to tie it at 2-all.
Ehlers' first score marked the fastest Game 1 goal in a Cup final since
Philadelphia's Reggie Leach scored 21 seconds into the 1976 opener against
Montreal.
"The building was already buzzing, but that for sure was pretty cool," Ehlers
said during an intermission interview on the ABC broadcast. "That was special.
That definitely gave the arena a little more juice."
Ehlers' goal was the third-fastest in any Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final, while
the Hurricanes nearly added a second with defenseman Jaccob Slavin banging the
crossbar roughly a minute after Ehlers' score sent a charged home crowd into an
eruption.
Tuesday's game brought together a Vegas team chasing a second championship in
four seasons and a Carolina team playing for the Cup for the first time since
coach Rod Brind'Amour captained the Hurricanes to the 2006 title.
The Hurricanes rolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs, while the Golden
Knights picked up speed with each round before pulling off a shocking sweep of
the Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
The Hurricanes went 12-1 through three rounds to get here, sweeping through
Ottawa and Philadelphia before taking the last four games of a five-game win
against Montreal in the Eastern Conference Final. That made the Hurricanes the
first team since 1983 to reach the Stanley Cup Final with one loss, and the
first since the NHL went to best-of-seven series in all four rounds in 1987.
The Golden Knights --- who surged after a late-season coaching change by firing
Bruce Cassidy to hire John Tortorella --- pushed past Utah and Anaheim in a
pair of six-game series, and have won six straight games entering Tuesday's
Game 1 against Carolina after beating the Avs.
Defense has been the standout feature for both teams. Carolina has allowed two
or fewer goals in 12 of 13 playoff games, including a shutout win in all three
Eastern playoff rounds. Vegas allowed just seven goals in the sweep of the
Avalanche, who led the league in regular-season scoring (3.63 goals per game)
behind high-end skill like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas.
Vegas took both regular-season meetings with Carolina, first with a 4-1 home
win on Oct. 20. Eight days later, Jack Eichel scored twice in the last 4:59 for
a 6-3 win that included Carolina having multiple injuries that had them down to
four defensemen for a significant stretch of the night.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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