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The Carolina Hurricanes opened the postseason with a win tonight, defeating the Boston Bruins 5-1 in Game 1 of their first round series.
The Hurricanes were under siege early on, with the Bruins getting a ton of chances. However, Antti Raanta was excellent, with nearly 10 saves in under the first six minutes. Then later, it looked like the Hurricanes could’ve opened the scoring after a puck was poked in by Nino Niederreiter, but after a quick discussion amongst the referees, the game remained scoreless. Carolina really built some momentum after that and drew a couple penalties as well, but the game remained 0-0 after a fast-paced 20 minutes.
The Bruins took back the momentum in the second period, outplaying the Hurricanes through a chunk of the frame. However, Antti Raanta continued to be great and with under four minutes remaining in the period, the Hurricanes finally opened the scoring, with Seth Jarvis deflecting in Jaccob Slavin’s point shot. Carolina wasn’t done there either, with Nino Niederreiter ripping a wrist shot through traffic a few minutes later, to go up 2-0 before the second intermission.
Boston kept pressing in the third period though and only three minutes in, Taylor Hall finally beat Raanta, taking a pass from Erik Haula and one-timing a shot from a little ways out to cut the lead in half. However, the Hurricanes extended the lead back to two goals only about five minutes later, with Teuvo Teravainen taking a nice pass from Vincent Trocheck on 2-on-1 and beating Ullmark. Then after Boston continued to outshoot Carolina, Vincent Trocheck somehow managed to backhand a puck from a brutal angle off Ullmark and in, before Sebastian Aho found Andrei Svechnikov for an empty net goal, securing a 5-1 win.
It’s a key win for the Hurricanes to start the postseason strong and get ahead on home ice. Everyone was contributing and it was a solid effort, though Carolina was outplayed for stretches, struggling to keep the play out of their own end at times.
Antti Raanta was key in his first NHL playoff start, stopping 35 of 36 shots. If it weren’t for some pretty key saves and Raanta holding the team in it until Carolina broke open the game at the end of the second period, the game could’ve turned out differently.
Seth Jarvis continued his hot stretch of play as well, opening the scoring with his first NHL playoff goal. The forward group as a whole managed to capitalize on their opportunities and the scoring came from different places.
The Hurricanes probably don’t want to rely on their goaltending going forward as much as they did at times in Game 1 but regardless, they took a hard-fought win to open the series.
Game 2 will take place in Carolina on Wednesday night.
QuizMaker
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