Carolina Hurricanes not wasting any time, score on first shot of Stanley Cup Final

The Stanley Cup Final — for illustration immoderate best-of-seven playoff bid — is typically much of a marathon than a sprint.

That said, you're not going to perceive excessively galore complaints astir a speedy start, and it's difficult to get immoderate quicker than nan Carolina Hurricanes.

The crippled sewage underway connected Wednesday nighttime successful Raleigh pinch nan Vegas Golden Knights coming to municipality aft clinching nan Western Conference title by measurement of a stunning expanse of nan Colorado Avalanche.

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Nikolaj Ehlers of nan Carolina Hurricanes is congratulated by his teammates aft scoring a extremity against nan Vegas Golden Knights during nan first play successful Game One of nan 2026 Stanley Cup Final (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

While Vegas-Carolina is not exactly ratings golden by immoderate stretch, it is simply a matchup betwixt 2 insanely bully lucky teams.

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Both person different styles that make them great, but Carolina's concealed weapons are structure and speedy starts.

Well, erstwhile nan puck dropped successful Game 1, nan broadcasts hadn't moreover gotten done nan starting lineups earlier Hurricanes guardant Nikolaj Ehlers put nan location squad up by 1 connected nan very first changeable of nan series.

The Canes simply couldn't person asked for a amended start.

And, needless to say, it's nan worst imaginable commencement for nan Golden Knights.

And, if that wasn't enough, Ehlers had different 1 up his sleeve later successful nan period.

Both of those goals were assisted connected by Jalen Chatfield.

The Canes person perfectly torn done nan Eastern Conference en way to their 3rd Cup Final quality successful franchise history.

Nikolaj Ehlers of nan Carolina Hurricanes celebrates pinch teammates aft a extremity during nan first play against nan Vegas Golden Knights successful Game One of nan 2026 Stanley Cup Final. (Photo by Cato Cataldo/NHLI via Getty Images)

Despite nan speedy start, Vegas did drawback a awesome break connected a fortunate bounce to trim nan lead to 2-1, a extremity that was credited to Shea Theodore.

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Carolina swept nan Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers successful nan first and 2nd rounds, respectively. The Hurricanes past dropped Game 1 of nan Eastern Conference Final against nan Montreal Canadiens earlier rebounding to triumph nan adjacent 4 games and clinch nan bid successful five.

Game 2 is Thursday successful Raleigh, past nan bid will displacement to Las Vegas for Game 3 Saturday and Game 4 nan pursuing Tuesday.