Hertl Power: Center’s goal powers Knights to Game 1 win in Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tomas Hertl, respectfully, asks that his scoring slump never be brought up again.

That shouldn’t be difficult. The narrative can shift to him scoring the biggest goals of his NHL career over the past few games.

He did it again Tuesday with the game-winning goal with 3:24 remaining in regulation to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 5-4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Lenovo Center.

“It was a lot happening, but when you score a game winner, it’s a pretty nice touch,” Hertl said. “I’m just proud of the team, effort and every single guy.”

A drought that seemed never-ending is in the dust now. Hertl has four goals in his past eight games and game-winning goals in two of the past three.

This one will carry a lot of weight. The Knights sit three wins from a second Stanley Cup championship in four years after stealing the opener in front of a raucous crowd deep in the forest of North Carolina.

Game 2 is in Raleigh on Thursday.

It would be one thing if Hertl was still on this quest for goals. He’s become a reason why the Knights are even in this spot. Of course questions will come up.

“Hopefully this is the last time because I feel like ever since I scored, it’s always a question,” Hertl joked.

Hertl laughed about it, but it’s been no laughing matter. He hadn’t scored since March 4 and went a round and a half before finally getting one to go.

It wasn’t until Hertl had a 30-minute conversation with former San Jose teammate Joe Pavelski who gave him pointers on how to break through.

The next day, he scored in Game 4 of the second round against Anaheim and has taken off ever since.

“Obviously it’s not easy,” Hertl said. “Everybody’s looking at me. I’m on the power play, scoring the last two years. I’ve watched YouTube videos of how I scored, talked with family and stuff. It wasn’t like I wasn’t getting chances. That’s when you start worrying when you don’t have chances for a couple games.”

Hertl’s slump after lasted just three games, until Game 3 of the Western Conference Final with the backhanded game-winner against Colorado.

Tuesday was because of a give-and-go with center Colton Sissons. Hertl dashed to the slot after giving the puck to Sissons, received the backhand, no-look pass from Sissons for the finish.

“We kind of scissored, kind of changed lanes a little bit, so I knew where he was,” Sissons said.

To think the Knights had a chance to win seemed impossible given the way it started.

Carolina winger Nik Ehlers took a bank pass from defenseman Jaccob Slavin, jumpstarted a 2-on-1 and beat goaltender Carter Hart 25 seconds into the game for a 1-0 Hurricanes lead.

It was the third fastest goal to start a Stanley Cup Final in history.

Ehlers made the Knights pay again after a turnover from center Jack Eichel sprung the Danish speedster for a breakaway, in which he beat Hart with a backhand for a 2-0 lead at 12:08.

Coach John Tortorella huddled the team during the first media timeout to calm the nerves.

Defenseman Shea Theodore scored 1 minute, 20 seconds later. That woke the Knights up. They took a 3-2 lead less than five minutes into the second period with goals from center William Karlsson and winger Ivan Barbashev.

“It was obviously a tough start,” Theodore said. “The first period was more just seeing how they were going to play. They’re an aggressive team. We haven’t seen that aggressive play so far in the playoffs.

“I thought we weathered the storm and obviously got to our game in the second period.”

Theodore finished with a goal and two assists for his third career three-point playoff game, and blue line partner Brayden McNabb had the first three-assist game of his NHL career after more than 1,000 games between regular season and playoffs combined.

Theodore’s first assist gave the Knights a 4-3 lead with a deke to the slot and a backdoor pass to forward Brett Howden for his 11th goal of the postseason 1:21 into the third.

Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere tied it at 11:19, seconds after the Knights were called for icing despite winger Cole Smith appearing to win the race for the puck.

Goaltender Carter Hart finished with 23 saves, and the Knights won a franchise-record seventh straight playoff game. They haven’t lost since Game 4 against Anaheim on May 10 — 23 days ago.

“Even when we were down 2-0, I thought we had some good minutes under our belt,” Tortorella said. “I just think we need to be patient in a number of things. When you get a little antsy against that team, they can capitalize. They’re that good. I think we have an understanding of how we have to go.”

There hasn’t been panic in the Knights’ locker room all season, even as experts of the multi-goal comeback. They showed that again in the most intense environment they’ve played in.

Much like there hasn’t been any panic for Hertl. No matter how bad things got, he never changed the way he played.

He has waited 10 years to get back to the Stanley Cup Final. He had a moment to remember Tuesday.

“I think we have such a strong team,” Hertl said. “We were saying before the game: Just don’t panic at any time of the game. We knew, especially in the playoffs, how this team is strong, how we stay together, how we try to help each other.”