{"id":131600,"date":"2026-06-02T22:34:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hurricanes-golden-knights-set-to-open-stanley-cup-final-with-tuesdays-game-1\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T22:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:52:23","slug":"hertls-late-goal-lifts-golden-knights-past-hurricanes-5-4-to-open-stanley-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hertls-late-goal-lifts-golden-knights-past-hurricanes-5-4-to-open-stanley-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Hertl’s late goal lifts Golden Knights past Hurricanes 5-4 to open Stanley Cup Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vegas
Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a goal by Tomas Hertl, during the third period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 It took just one shot and 25 seconds worth of game action for the Vegas Golden Knights to find themselves in hole in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

And by midway through the opening period, they were down two goals against a fast-skating Carolina Hurricanes team teeming with energy from a buzzing home crowd.<\/p>\n

No matter. And no panic. Not with these tested Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

Tomas Hertl took a backhand pass from Colton Sissons and beat Frederik Andersen from the slot with 3:24 left in the third period, lifting the Golden Knights past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in Tuesday night\u2019s opener of the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve said it all through the playoffs: it’s a find-a-way league,\u201d Vegas coach John Tortorella said. \u201cWe found a way tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMomentum swings happen quickly,\u201d Tortorella said. \u201cWe want to keep the momentum on our side, so there\u2019s no question we\u2019re looking to get two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hertl\u2019s finish off Sissons’ 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\u2019s biggest stage. It marked Vegas\u2019 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\u2019 Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 this time 2-0 in the opening period \u2014 against the team that finished second only to the Avs in the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a terrible start,” said center William Karlsson, who capped a run of three straight goals that pushed Vegas to a 3-2 second-period lead. “Just like it was against Colorado, a lot of time left. We always believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things changed after Tortorella gathered his team around the bench during a TV timeout after the Hurricanes had sprinted out to their lead, coming as Vegas had a slow start out of its six-day break while waiting for Carolina to close out Montreal in a five-game Eastern Conference Final.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust stick with the program, on our gameplan, and not get impatient,” said defenseman Brayden McNabb, who had three assists. \u201cThey pressure a lot and we want to keep the puck going north, and limit east-west plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shea Theodore, Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden also scored for Vegas, with Howden\u2019s 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, including a key stop on Seth Jarvis only seconds before Hertl’s winner.<\/p>\n

Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice for the Hurricanes, the first coming 25 seconds into the game when he got loose on a rush and blasted one past Hart from the left side on the game\u2019s 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\u2019s first Stanley Cup Final game in two decades.<\/p>\n

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. Andersen finished with 18 saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they played just a little bit better than us,\u201d Staal said. \u201cThey executed their game plan and aggressive on their forecheck and played in our end, and they buried their chances when they had them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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 Tortorella as coach<\/a>. That included the shocking result against the Avalanche, who managed just seven goals in four games.<\/p>\n

Defense had been the standout feature<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a totally different team, and that may be part of it too,\u201d Brind’Amour said when asked about comparisons to the 6-2 loss to the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get up to speed on how this game and this series is going to go. I think we certainly got a taste of that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Carolina
Carolina Hurricanes' Shayne Gostisbehere (4) celebrates his goal with Carolina Hurricanes' Jackson Blake (53) during the third period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carolina
Carolina Hurricanes' Andrei Svechnikov (37) battles for the puck between Vegas Golden Knights' Brayden McNabb (3) and Tomas Hertl (48) during the second period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Golden Knights celebrate a goal by Tomas Hertl, during the third period in Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker)(AP Photo\/Karl DeBlaker) RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 It took just one shot and 25 seconds worth of game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131600"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131624,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131600\/revisions\/131624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131600"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}