Tomas Hertl's late goal lifts
Golden Knights past Hurricanes 5-4 to open Stanley Cup Final
[June 03, 2026]
By AARON BEARD
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It took just one shot and 25 seconds worth of
game action for the Vegas Golden Knights to find themselves in a
hole in the Stanley Cup Final.
And by midway through the opening period, they were down two goals
against a fast-skating Carolina Hurricanes team riding the energy
from a buzzing home crowd.
No matter. And no panic. Not with these tested Golden Knights.
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’s opener of the Stanley Cup Final.
“I've said it all through the playoffs: it's a find-a-way league,”
Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “We found a way tonight.”
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.
“Momentum swings happen quickly,” Tortorella said. “We want to keep
the momentum on our side, so there’s no question we’re looking to
get two.”
Hertl’s 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’s biggest stage. It marked Vegas’
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’ Trophy-winning
Colorado Avalanche.
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 — this time 2-0 in the opening period — against
the team that finished second only to the Avs in the regular season.
“It 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.”
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.
“Just stick with the program, on our game plan, and not get
impatient," said defenseman Brayden McNabb, who had three assists.
“They pressure a lot and we want to keep the puck going north, and
limit east-west plays.”
Shea Theodore, Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden also scored for
Vegas, with Howden’s 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.
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’s 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’s first Stanley Cup Final
game in two decades.
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Vegas Golden Knights' Pavel Dorofeyev (16) celebrates between
Carolina Hurricanes' Jalen Chatfield (5), Alexander Nikishin (21),
and goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) after a goal in the second
period of Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series in
Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
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-all. Andersen finished
with 18 saves.
“I thought they played just a little bit better than us,” Staal
said. “They executed their game plan and aggressive on their
forecheck and played in our end, and they buried their chances when
they had them.”
The Hurricanes went 12-1 through three rounds to get back to the
Stanley Cup Final for the first time since now-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.
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. 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.
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 and replace him with Tortorella. That
included the shocking result against the Avalanche, who managed just
seven goals in four games.
Defense had been the standout feature 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.
“This is a totally different team, and that may be part of it too,”
Brind'Amour said when asked about comparisons to the 6-2 loss to the
Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final. “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.”
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