06/02/26 10:33:00
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06/02 22:31 CDT Hertl's late goal lifts Golden Knights past Hurricanes 5-4 to
open Stanley Cup Final
Hertl's late goal lifts Golden Knights past Hurricanes 5-4 to open Stanley Cup
Final
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- Tomas Hertl took a backhand pass from Colton Sisson and
beat Frederik Andersen from the slot with 3:24 left in the third period,
lifting the Vegas Golden Knights past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in Tuesday
night's opener of the Stanley Cup Final.
Hertl's finish off Sisson's feed from the right faceoff circle broke a 4-4 tie
and pushed the Golden Knights ahead in an entertaining back-and-forth start on
the sport's biggest stage. It marked Vegas' seventh straight win of the
playoffs, starting with the last two games of the six-game second-round series
against Anaheim and then the shocking four-game sweep of the Presidents'
Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
That series included Vegas erasing a 3-0 deficit to take Game 3, and now the
Golden Knights have followed by rallying from another multigoal deficit ---
this time 2-0 in the opening period --- against the team that finished second
only to the Avs in the regular season.
"It was awesome. It was tough," Hertl said in a postgame interview on the ABC
broadcast. "I know this building was buzzing. We obviously didn't have the
greatest start, but that's kind of our story all season. We never give up. It
doesn't matter if we're up, down, we just keep playing."
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday in Raleigh, with Vegas already
having taken home-ice away from the Hurricanes as it chases a second Cup title
in four seasons.
Shea Theodore, Ivan Barbashev, William Karlsson and Brett Howden also scored
for Vegas, with Howden's postseason-leading 11th score giving the Golden
Knights a 4-3 lead just 1:21 into the third period. Carter Hart finished with
23 saves.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice for the Hurricanes, the first coming 25 seconds
into the game when he got loose and a rush and blasted one past Hart from the
left side on the game's first shot. He followed with a breakaway that gave
Carolina a 2-0 lead and sent a charged home crowd into an eruption in the
team's first Stanley Cup Final game in two decades.
Jordan Staal and Shayne Gostisbehere each scored tying goals after Vegas had
pushed to a lead, with Gostisbehere skating in clean on the left side to blast
one past Hart at 11:19 of the third period and tie it once more at 4.
The Hurricanes went 12-1 through three rounds to get back to the Stanley Cup
Final for the first time since coach Rod Brind'Amour captained them to the
title in 2006. It also comes amid an eight-year playoff streak that has
included at least one series win every time as a regular postseason contender.
Carolina swept through Ottawa and Philadelphia before taking the last four
games of a five-game win against Montreal to punch through an Eastern
Conference Final roadblock. 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.
Meanwhile, Vegas had been getting stronger with every playoff round, winning
for 19 of 24 games going back to the unexpected late-season firing of Bruce
Cassidy to hire John Tortorella as coach. That included the shocking result
against the Avalanche, who managed just seven goals in four games.
Defense had been the standout feature for both teams, in fact, with Carolina
having allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of 13 playoff games. But that wasn't
the case in Tuesday's fast-paced series opener, with both teams capitalizing on
their chances in an entertaining back-and-forth game before Hertl got Vegas the
lead for good.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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