The first-ever playoff meeting between the Golden Knights and Hurricanes was a highly entertaining 5-4 road upset by Vegas in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Carolina tries to avoid back-to-back losses in these playoffs for the first time, and in months overall, with Game 2 in Raleigh tonight at 8 ET.
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Canadiens vs. Hurricanes same-game parlay
- Carolina money line
- Alt Under 7.5
BetRivers SGP price: +100
I will be honest in that I got Game 1 completely wrong. I thought it would be lower-scoring (Under 7.5 total goals) and that Vegas might have some issues with rust having had a week off since winning the Western Conference title. And the Knights looked rusty early Tuesday, trailing 2-0 midway through the first period, but then were clearly the better and more aggressive team the rest of the way in the upset victory.
Vegas became the first road team to stage a multi-goal comeback win in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, as away clubs had been 0-55 in that scenario. That statistic surprised me.
The Knights were the 16th club to stage a multi-goal comeback win on the road during any game in the Stanley Cup Final. After 29 years without a multi-goal comeback win by a road team in the Stanley Cup Final, there has now been one in each of the past two.
Teams that win Game 1 go on to win the Cup 76.4% of the time (81-25) and 65.6% of the time as the road team (21-11).
On the updated series line, Vegas is now the -155 favorite and Carolina +130, but I still like the Hurricanes. They just better win tonight, as teams that take a 2-0 series lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final own an all-time record of 50-5, including 10-2 when starting on the road. When a Final is tied 1-1, the team that began the series at home has an overall series mark of 20-11.
The Canes did look quite terrible in Game 1 of the last round vs. Montreal and then won the next four, so I'm not too worried yet. Although, Vegas is 20-4-1 overall since John Tortorella replaced the fired Bruce Cassidy as head coach.
Tuesday was the team's seventh comeback win of these playoffs, and the Knights' franchise playoff-record seventh straight win overall as they got six points from defensemen: Three each from Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb. They became the first defensemen from the same team to each record three points in Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final.
It was only the third time in any Final game that a blue-liner duo each had at least three points. There were 11 total points accumulated by defensemen in Game 1 (five by Carolina blue-liners), tying the Stanley Cup Final record for any game.
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The Hurricanes have to feel good after they held the two Vegas stars in Mitchell Marner and Jack Eichel to just an assist each, although the Knights have to feel great having scored five times without much from that dynamic duo. Marner improved to -110 for the Conn Smythe Trophy. Tomas Hertl had the winning goal at 16:36 of the third, his third go-ahead goal in the third period of these playoffs, tops in the league. But he's still at +15000 longshot for playoff MVP.
Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen remains the second favorite for playoff MVP, but his odds shot from +220 to +400 following the Game 1 loss as the Dane stopped only 18 of 23 shots. It was only Andersen's second time allowing more than two goals in these playoffs. It certainly was not all on Andersen, as the Hurricanes made uncharacteristic errors throughout Game 1. On the bright side, their special teams were able to kill off three Vegas power plays.
Taylor Hall leads the team with 16 playoff points, but the former No. 1 overall pick was scoreless with only two shots on goal. Second-leading scorer Jackson Blake (15 points) also was held without a point on two shots, while leading goal-scorer Logan Stankoven (nine) also had a goose egg on two shots. Vegas' fore-check pressure is much tougher than anything Carolina has seen so far. The Hurricanes fell to 10-2 in the 2026 postseason when scoring first.
"They forced us into [mistakes], and we didn't handle pressure particularly well. Sometimes there wasn't pressure, and we made a few poor decisions with the puck. They capitalized," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We've 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."
The Hurricanes had the fourth-ranked power play in the NHL in the regular season at 24.9%, but that unit was 0-for-2 in Game 1 – without a shot on goal in those four minutes with the man advantage -- and now connecting at only 12.1% in these playoffs.
Tuesday was historic, as it was only the second game in Stanley Cup Final history to feature a goal in the opening two minutes of every period (also Game 1 in 1943). Nikolaj Ehlers scored 25 seconds into the game for Carolina, while Ivan Barbashev scored 30 seconds into the second period for Vegas, and the Knights' Brett Howden scored his NHL playoff-leading 11th goal 1:21 into the third. That there is a goal in the first 10 minutes tonight is -160.
Home teams that trail 1-0 in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final hold an all-time record of 11-12 in Game 2 but are 5-1 in the past six.
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Vegas is 3-0 in the season series, but it's near desperation time for Carolina as it clearly can't afford to fall down 2-0 headed to Sin City for Game 3 on Saturday. The Hurricanes haven't lost back-to-back games since mid-January and those were both away. They last lost back-to-back home games Jan. 1 and 3. Expect more of a defensive battle now that the clubs know one another a bit better. Check out more expert picks in the daily SportsLine newsletter.
