Montreal Canadiens Ride 4-Goal First Period to Game 1 Victory in Eastern Conference Final

The 2026 Eastern Conference Final is underway as the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens vie for their spot in the Stanley Cup Final against either the Colorado Avalanche or Vegas Golden Knights. 

For the Carolina Hurricanes, it's an opportunity to prove everyone wrong after going 1-16 in their last four trips to the Eastern Conference Final, while the Montreal Canadiens, the second-youngest team in the NHL this season, are gaining some valuable experience as their window begins to open.

After an 11-day break, everyone was wondering what Carolina Hurricanes team was going to show up to Game 1 against Montreal on Thursday night, whether they'd be ready to go or would the long layoff cause them problems. It ended up being a very quick & positive start for Rod Brind'Amour's group as 33 seconds into the game, Seth Jarvis gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, which sent the crowd at the Lenovo Center into a frenzy.

Montreal Canadiens take control, score four unanswered first period goals

From there, the Montreal Canadiens took over for the remainder of the opening period. Less than 30 seconds after Jarvis opened the scoring, Juraj Slafkovsky found a wide-open Cole Caufield in front of the net, who roofed it past Frederik Andersen to tie the game up at 1-1. It marked Caufield's fifth goal of the playoffs and his fourth in his last six games.

A little over three minutes later, the Canadiens would find the back of the net once again and took the lead for the first time in the game. Off a defensive zone face-off, Alexandre Carrier passed the puck up the boards where it took a deflection and sent Phillip Danault in all alone. Danault beat Andersen blocker side for his second goal in as many games, giving the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.

The Canadiens weren't done there as a little over four minutes later, Alexandre Texier picked up his fourth of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on a great feed from Phillip Danault to give his team a 3-1 lead less than halfway through the opening frame. At this point, the fans in attendance were growing frustrated with the play of the Hurricanes to start the game and full credit to the Canadiens, they played a great road game from start to finish, one that Martin St. Louis and the coaching staff are going to be very pleased with.

Less than four minutes later, the Canadiens continue to pour it on. With the Hurricanes pressing to bring this game within one, Alex Newhook sprung Ivan Demidov in on a breakaway where he deked out Andersen, sliding it between the post and his pad, making it 4-1 Montreal, which is where things would stand after 20 minutes of play.

In the second period, the Hurricanes struck back. After Cole Caufield hit the post and missed an opportunity to put the Canadiens up 5-1, the Hurricanes went the other way, with Eric Robinson firing one top corner past the should of Jakub Dobeš to bring his team within two. Carolina played very well in that second period, outshooting Montreal 11 to 3 and at times, it looked like they could've made a comeback, but Dobeš stood tall.

Flash forward to the third period where Montreal regained their three-goal lead thanks to forward Juraj Slafkovsky. Slafkovsky picked up the puck in the neutral zone on a one-touch pass from captain Nick Suzuki, skated into Carolina's zone, undressed Andrei Svechnikov, before beating Andersen low blocker side to give Montreal a 5-2 lead.

Slafkovsky would then go on to add an empty netter with under three minutes to play, securing a 6-2 victory for the Montreal Canadiens, who take a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final.

"Yeah, it was really important to make sure we do what we talked about in the morning and yesterday and yeah, it was a well executed plan. We knew that they were going to push back in the second and third, obviously. They do it a lot to every team in the NHL, but we just, you know, had to stay ready and calm and I liked the way we played. We just got to make sure we're prepared for Game 2." Slafkovsky said to reporters following Game 1 last night.

As is the case for any road team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, if you're able to get the split to start a series, you're in a really good position heading back home, but there's no question that this Montreal Canadiens team has a much bigger goal than that as they gear up for Game 2 on Saturday night. If the Canadiens are able to play exactly like they did on Thursday, which I believe was their most complete game in the playoffs thus far, there's no doubt they'll have a good chance at coming back to the Bell Centre up 2-0 in this series.

Puck drop for Game 2 of the 2026 Eastern Conference Final is set for 7 pm ET on Sportsnet & CBC in Canada, as well as TNT in the United States.