Hurricanes crush Canadiens to set up Stanley Cup Final date with Golden Knights

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes have finally broken through their Eastern Conference Final roadblock. Now comes the chance to play for the Stanley Cup for the first time in two decades.

Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and Eric Robinson scored in a dominating first period that helped push the Hurricanes past the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Friday night, closing a five-game series that sent the Eastern Conference’s top seed on to face Vegas for the Cup.

Jackson Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere added second-period goals that pushed the Hurricanes to a 5-0 lead entering the final period, while Seth Jarvis scoring into an empty net with 3:41 left. Frederik Andersen carried a shutout until midway through the third in net.

Carolina swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs, then regrouped from a Game 1 loss to the Canadiens after an extended between-rounds break to win four straight. That included a run of 10 straight goals going back to Andrei Svechnikov’s overtime winner in Game 3 before Montreal finally got on the board with Cole Caufield’s power-play score at 10:50 of the third.

That made the Hurricanes the first team to reach the Stanley Cup Final with only one loss since 1983, according to SportRadar, and the only team to do so since the league went to best-of-seven series in all four postseason rounds in 1987.

It was a long-awaited moment for the franchise, which is on an eight-year run of postseason appearances under Rod Brind’Amour. The Hurricanes have been a perennial contender in the East, yet they entered this series having gone 1-12 in the Eastern Conference Final under Brind’Amour — falling in sweeps to Boston in 2019 and Florida in 2023 before losing in five games to the Panthers in last year’s rematch.

But they were tested, and wounded, from those past postseason failures. Throw in their depth and talent, and the Hurricanes were finally ready to punch through for their third shot at the Cup since the former Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina before the 1997-98 season.

The last time the Hurricanes reached this point? Brind’Amour was the captain on a team that hoisted the Cup in a seven-game series against Edmonton in 2006.

After regrouping from a 6-2 loss in Game 1, the Hurricanes took control of the series from the young and skilled Canadiens — who had arrived at this round ahead of schedule after Game 7 road wins against Tampa Bay and Buffalo through the first two rounds. They won consecutive 3-2 overtime wins, then took Game 4 in a 4-0 road romp Wednesday.

Beyond the score, Carolina was getting to its smothering game in pressuring the Canadiens in their own end or shutting off most high-danger chances they could muster going the other way.

By midway through the second period, festive and rowdy Hurricanes fans were offering mocking “Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé!” chants with Carolina up 4-0. By the final two minutes, they were chanting “We want the Cup! We want the Cup!” as the Hurricanes closed this one out.