Canadiens pounce on Canes early, roll to G1 win

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Montreal Canadiens never flinched in winning two Game 7s on the road to reach the Eastern Conference finals. Opening on the road again was no different, even against a well-rested top seed that had yet to lose in the postseason.

The Canadiens pounced for four first-period goals on slow-starting Carolina — coming off the longest postseason break in more than a century — and beat the Hurricanes 6-2 on Thursday night.

“We knew we could come in here and try to get off to a good start to the series,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said after a three-assist night. “We’re happy with the result, but they’re definitely going to be better than what they were tonight.”

Cole Caufield and Phillip Danault scored in the opening four minutes, Alexandre Texier followed four minutes later, and Ivan Demidov finished a breakaway for a shocking 4-1 lead midway through the opening period. That came against a team that hadn’t allowed more than two goals in an 8-0 playoff start.

Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice in the third period for Montreal, the second on a late empty-netter, while Jakub Dobes had 24 saves.

Game 2 is Saturday night.

The Hurricanes were the first team to sweep their first two playoff rounds since the NHL went to best-of-seven series in all four rounds in 1987. But that led to a lengthy break of 11 days, the longest rest for any team before starting the next playoff run since at least 1920, while waiting on the Canadiens to battle their way past Tampa Bay and Buffalo.

That led to the rest-versus-rust discussion about the Hurricanes, along with how well the Canadiens would pivot from those to-the-limit wins.

And outside of Seth Jarvis beating Dobes just 33 seconds in, the Canadiens answered that question resoundingly in those opening minutes to extend Carolina’s misery in this round.

“I didn’t think we were very sharp, to put it bluntly,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Our top guys had tough nights. That’s not going to work at this time of the year.”

Much of Carolina’s success comes from pressuring opponents in the offensive zone and minimizing chances going the other way. But Montreal effectively moved the puck out of danger against Carolina’s aggressive pressure early, setting up clean breakouts, open ice space and multiple breakaway chances at Frederik Andersen.

“The execution was there right off the bat,” Canadiens center Jake Evans said.

Danault’s goal was a full-speed breakaway right up the middle off a feed from Alexandre Carrier, while Demidov went forehand-backhand-forehand to beat Andersen for the 4-1 lead with 8:28 left in the first.

Andersen was leading the postseason in goals-against average (1.12) and save percentage (.950) but finished with just 16 saves.

Eric Robinson also scored for Carolina, which is in the Eastern final for the third time in four years and fourth time in the current eight-season playoff run under Brind’Amour. But the Hurricanes are now 1-13 in those games, including sweeps against Boston in 2019 and Florida in 2023.

Carolina’s defeat meant the two Stanley Cup favorites both dropped the opener of the conference finals. Colorado lost at home to Vegas on Wednesday night.