Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice in a three-point outing as the visiting Montreal Canadiens rode a four-goal first period to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 Thursday in Raleigh, N.C., in the opening clash of the Eastern Conference finals.
Cole Caufield and Phillip Danault both scored once and added an assist, while Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov netted goals for the Canadiens, who have won seven of nine road games during the playoffs.
Goaltender Jakub Dobes made 25 saves, and Nick Suzuki collected three assists.
Seth Jarvis and Eric Robinson scored for the Hurricanes, who lost for the first time in this year’s playoffs. Carolina has lost seven straight conference final openers and won only once in its last 17 conference final clashes.
Goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots. He had not surrendered more than two goals in any of the previous outings this spring.
Carolina not only swept their opposition in each of the first two rounds, but surrendered only five goals in total in each of those series.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be on Saturday.
The affair kicked off with the clubs trading goals in the first minute. Jarvis put the Hurricanes on the board 33 seconds after the drop of the puck with a quick shot from the right circle, but Caufield replied at the one-minute mark when he buried an open chance from the slot.
Then it became even wilder. Danault put Montreal ahead with a breakaway at 4:04 during 4-on-4 play, and Texier made it a 3-1 game with a one-timer from the slot four minutes later.
Demidov netted Montreal’s fourth goal of the opening frame with another breakaway goal that had the Hurricanes and their faithful stunned.
Robinson provided the Hurricanes a much-needed jolt when he made it a 4-2 game by finishing a partial breakaway at 2:46 of the second period.
However, Slafkovsky restored Montreal’s three-goal edge at 7:05 of the third period when he used a toe-drag to elude a defender and tucked home a shot.
Slafkovsky’s empty-net goal rounded out the scoring.
The Hurricanes managed only one third-period shot on goal.
