The Hurricanes were rested. The Canadiens were tested. Montreal looked sharper and finished stronger in a 6-2 win in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Canes, who had not played since May 9, showed no early signs of rust. Carolina struck first just 33 seconds in when Sebastian Aho won a board battle and moved the puck to the high circle, where Seth Jarvis beat Jakub Dobes with a wrist shot to make it 1-0.
The lead did not last long.
Montreal answered with four straight first-period goals to take control. Cole Caufield tied it at 1-1 at the 1:00 mark after Juraj Slafkovsky drew three Carolina defenders behind the net and fed him in front for a finish over Frederik Andersen.
Philippe Danault then put the Canadiens ahead 2-1 three minutes later on a breakaway. Danault added an assist on Alexandre Texier’s goal at 8:11, as Texier fired a shot from between the circles past Andersen to make it 3-1. Ivan Demidov closed the first-period scoring at 11:32 with a breakaway goal of his own.
Carolina tried to steady itself in the second period and cut the deficit to 4-2 when Eric Robinson got behind the Montreal defense and beat Dobes on a breakaway 2:46 into the period.
The Hurricanes pushed for more, but Dobes shut the door the rest of the way.
Slafkovsky put the game away at 7:05 of the third period, driving through the Carolina defense and jamming home the puck past Andersen to make it 5-2. Slafkovsky added an empty-net goal at 17:32 to seal the Canadiens’ 6-2 win and give Montreal a 1-0 series lead.
The teams meet again for Game 2 on Saturday night in Carolina.
