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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